Caterpillar Cookies

It was my cousin’s three year old son’s birthday a couple of weekend’s ago. I made these cute little caterpillar cookies to take along to the party. And the kids actually ate them. I often think that kids just eat the icing off cookies, but they do seem to like shortbread biscuits. These caterpillars have got a good ratio of icing to biscuit I guess.

I haven’t blogged about “what we had for dinner” for a while, and I know that some of the people that read this blog like to know easy week night meal ideas. Last night we had free range pork chops which I marinated in maple syrup, olive oil and Dijon mustard and then roasted on top of slices of fresh pear. To go with it I roasted red onions and kumara (my favourite kumara is by far the orange kumara which has a much softer and sweeter flesh when cooked than the purple), then tossed them with balsamic drizzle (a Telegraph Hill product which is balsamic vinegar reduced until it becomes sticky, sweet and caramelised), crumbled feta cheese and baby spinach leaves. I don’t like pork chops, but my husband does and he loved these. I ate more than my fair share of the kumara salad though, as kumara is one of my favourite things.

I bought the organic kumara from the Takapuna Sunday market which has fabulous produce. I try and go every second weekend but have been a bit remiss lately and I think that last Sunday was the first time I had been in a couple of months. For about $20 I bought mandarins, broccoli, organic garlic, organic kumara, red onions, rosemary, parsley and apples. I also bought a jar of the most wonderful peanutbutter from a man who normally sells it at the Nelson farmers market. I hope to see him at Takapuna again.