Around here - Waffle Cone Maker

It's the second day of the New Year and the news is all about the fires and rightly so.  It's hard to believe so many people had to escape to the beach so they were safe.  A woman on TV this morning was talking about her daughter told her she had to get out of the house down to the lake and she said to her Mum we must go now...there's no time to bring anything and by the time they went down the steep hill 40 metres to the lake the house was ablaze and they jumped into the lake and had to tread water for an hour until someone came along on jetski to rescue them.   She was not a young lady either probably in her late 60's.  The number of houses and whole communities that have been wiped out is frightening and once everything stops where do all these homeless people live until they can rebuild their homes which will take at least a year.  There are no houses for all of these people it's honestly so sad and now Saturday they are predicting it will be worse than NYE weather conditions.  My thoughts and prayers go out to these families and their communities.

On the home front, you know that utensil drawer that gets out of hand from time to time it got the better of me as it was driving me crazy and I couldn't find a thing.  I went off to Kmart and bought a couple of clear plastic boxes to put items in.  The one at the back has candles and things we don't use all that often and then the two at the front have things that go together, apple corer, lemon squeezer etc. and the other one has ice cream scoops, icing knife and other bits and pieces and then the cup measurements are at the front easy to find.  I wondered whether having to lift the lid of a box vs an open basket would annoy me however they flick up really easily and it's no trouble.  I can't tell you how happy that 20 minute job made me feel. 

Before cleaning and sorting the utensil drawer.

After I now know where to find things.

This makes me so happy.

I also bought a family Chrismtas present for us which was Waffle Cone maker from Aldi $12.99.  We had fun with it yesterday and made our first batch of cones.  I also made home made ice cream and home made caramel sauce to go on top.  I made the caramel sauce a few days ago and made 4 little jars of it and put two in the freezer and two in the fridge.  It's a quick recipe with just 9 minutes cooking in the Thermomix.  The ice cream is amazing and all you need is a can of condensed milk some cream and vanilla.  It's super quick and my cream came together in about 3 or so minutes yesterday instead of the 10 as suggested in the recipe so just stand by your mixer.  Hands down it's the best ice cream recipe ever in my opinion.  10 minutes and then into the freezer and it's done.

The waffle cone maker comes with a recipe and the cones are thin and the flavour is beautiful.  We had fun with the first few trying to work out the technique and when they come off the pan as they are very hot.  You place a tea towel on the bench and when your waffle is done place it on the tea towel and immediately place the cone shape on top of it and using the tea towel [so you down burn your hands] push/roll the waffle around the cone and then hold the seam in place for 1-2 minutes until it cools down.  It was a fun little activity and a yummy dessert.