I’ve been in Sydney all week and a lot of this time has been spent hanging out with my 8 year old nephew, Alvin J. At the moment he’s right into these skate movies from the 80s – the Bones Brigade series. Created by the legendary (in skate circles, at least) Powell-Peralta, these films feature an all star skater lineup – Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill & Lance Mountain.

I haven’t really watched skate movies since I was a teenager trying to mooch in on my brother and his mates, but watching these movies now is hilarious – great skating, brilliant soundtrack, silly acting & plotlines but it’s all so much more laid back and less commercial than the skate movies (and games) out there today.

Watch the entire Bones Brigade: Search for Animal Chin online here

Buy the Bones Brigade DVD set here

I’m a week and a half into my Australian summer christmas holiday. It took a few days to get into the vacation vibe; but now I’m waking early, baking & listening to music, swimming at the beach, napping, hanging with the fam & watching tonnes of movies. Christmas in the sunshine is great!

So the title of  this post was a bit of an excuse to post some pictures of the newest member of our family – little Caio. He’s 10 months old and it was hilarious fun snapping him mid bawling! he’s actually a really happy kid, more like the photo below. way too cute!

So, on to the recipes! when I visit my mums, I always bake up a storm. This time, the favorites by far were the cranberry & macadamia cookies and the apple cinnamon muffins. Recipes below.

CRANBERRY & MACADAMIA COOKIES

ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (chopped if needed) macadamia nuts
- 1 1/2 cups dried cranberries

directions

1. preheat oven to 190c (375f)
2. in a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda & salt and set aside
3. Beat together the melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar. Beat in the egg, then beat in the vanilla
4. gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, until just moistened. stir in the macadamia nuts and cranberries by hand
5. roll into tablespoon size balls and drop onto a greased or lined baking sheet, and press down the cookie dough with a fork to flatten (but not too much!). sprinkle with brown sugar if desired
6. bake 12-15 minutes or until edges look golden brown. cool on baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack

APPLE CINNAMON MUFFINS

ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups chopped apples
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon plain flour
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon butter

directions

1. preheat oven to 190c (375f). grease muffin tin or put paper cups in tin
2. in a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt and set aside
3. Beat together the butter, sugar and the eggs until smooth. mix in the vanilla
4. stir in apples and gradually blend in the flour mixture & spoon into muffin cases, filling almost to top
5. in a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. cut in the butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan
6. bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean. allow to sit for 5 minutes before removing muffins from the pan. cool on a wire rack.