Wine-making and Children...Two Things You Dont Often Hear In The Same Sentence!

Whilst I wouldn't really consider this a craft activity it fits within my basic remit of 'fun, free,educational and useful'. I don't normally suggest the use of alcohol around children but this week I've made an exception. Together with the children's assistance, I've been making wine. My parents have a monstrous grapevine that used to give me strange body snatcher dreams in my younger years, but the grapes aren't that great for eating. My Dad suggested making some wine and in my current 'why not, I'll have a go at that' state of mind, I agreed. So, after school yesterday we went down to my Mum & Dads and the kids had a ball picking as many grapes as they could, 10kg in total. As this is my first attempt at making wine I bought a kit with all the necessary bits in to make life a little easier. After cleaning the grapes I then let my little darlings loose on the wonderful business of 'squishing'. Not wishing my finished product to taste like small children's feet I made sure their hands were VERY clean and gave them a lovely big bowl each with a suitable pile of grapes to mulch. I can honestly and quite sadly admit they haven't had this much fun in ages! What a delightfully disgusting experience it is to pop each little berry between your fingers - delicious! With all the grapes squished they were then added to a large vat containing a huge amount of sugar and a seemingly small quantity of water. Sachets of various things were added (don't ask me to get technical - there's plenty of sites for that!) and by teatime tonight it was frothing away quite nicely. Unfortunately I know I am now going to have the question every morning 'Mum, when's our wine going to be ready?'  Hmmmm, sorry kids.

Mess Free Baking - Well, Nearly...

With two little darlings I find baking a bit of a nightmare, in that, which ever one I'm not watching that second will empty a bag of flour onto the floor or something similar. I discovered some wonderful Dr Oetker baking trays in Aldi the other day. You simply add water or milk to the mix (depending on the instructions obviously!) and stir it well & stick it in the oven - job done! Perfect for a quick, easy & virtually mess free baking session. I've seen various ones, bread & cake mixes, possibly not all Dr Oetker but all the ones we've tried have been good. Anything you can bake in a tray gets my vote as an easy one for the kids to tackle. We cooked a Dr Oetker lemon & poppy seed cake yesterday, which was gorgeous. The Mediteranean bread mix was also a hit. Just right for pulling out of the cupboard on a rainy day.