Wednesday Baking day!

Wednesdays have become something of a regular baking day with the children. During the school pick up time, it was raining heavily, very cold and very windy. It feels so good to be able to come home, shut the world out and get changed into our comfy pyjamas and warm slippers at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Then after a quick snack, sleeves rolled up, hands washed and aprons on!
R is so excited about her ability to read and write sentences so she was able to pick out the ingredients we needed from my baking bag. R and K took turns to crack eggs, whisk them, add the carefully measured ingredients as chosen by R from her Princess Book of Baking. There were no squabbles, arguments or rifts of rivalry. Just lovely pleasantness, chit chat and bonding, not to mention all the hidden learning going on!
I am full of gratitude for the quality time that I enjoy with my children. I cannot think of a better way to spend an afternoon with them when it's horrible outside than to work together on our little projects. Our next task will be making Christmas cards, and others we have lined up are decorating jars, scrap-booking and writing journals.
We turned out 2 batches of muffins, one plain and one chocolate batch. After dinner, we set about the task of decorating these with buttercream, jelly candy butterflies and multi coloured polka dots.
Then of course it was tasting time!

And the washing up afterwards.....

And finally a lovely cup of coffee from my new Tassimo T40 machine which I got in a better than half price deal!

My Girly Girl

I gave myself a pampering session and a bath but the most satisfying part of the day was nursing my poor little baby girl back to her normal self after a night of being sick. It was a relief to see that it was only a 24 hour bug and it went through her system very quickly.

My little R is a girly girl. She loves glitter, princesses, mermaids, Barbies, hair accessories, pink clothes, dresses with sequins and frills that twirl. She is choosy about the way her hair is styled and will not allow it to be cut, or even trimmed. I haven't been able to get her hair cut since she was 2 years old. All it needs is some tidying, but she refuses to have it cut half an inch. But I love all this about her! 

I find it fascinating that she is like this without my influence. As a baby, I used to dress her in pink babygros with heart and strawberry motifs but that is as far as I've gone when it comes to gender stereotyping. Most of her wardrobe is full of clothes of all imaginable colours, but the ones she wears the most are the pink ones. As she's turned 5 this year, I gave her the party she loves, which is a princess party complete with princess dress and princess cake. Up until now, she has not had a girly party, and there's no time like the present, because before I know it she might have grown out of the girly phase.

I had a personal training session at the gym which went really well. I found myself feeling very driven and determined. I promised myself that as soon as I go back to work, I will do some personal training sessions.
As I was walking home from the gym, I crossed paths with a transgender male. The man was dressed as a woman, in a knee length skirt, pick capped sleeve t-shirt, long, straightened hair, (possibly a wig?) and make up on his face. But what gave him away was his angular jaws, and his manly legs. I've never seen one in person before and it was strange to see him right there in front of me. I wonder how one ends up that way, being confused about their gender. It's such a core part of who we are, and the most fundamental part of out identity is whether we are a male of a female, yet some people cannot bring themselves to accept the body they were born with. What an incomprehensibly traumatic experience.

I then started thinking that some day my children will see these sorts of people and start asking me awkward questions. My daughter has already started with the questions. I love the scientific questions she asks me. Like, where does rain come from? How does it stay up in the sky? Why can we see the moon in the sky in the daytime and at the same time as the sun? It's endless. But I love answering them, and I often find myself stuck. I hope that both of my children never lose that wonder. So I make a huge effort out of making their learning fun.

I have a question of my own here: How can one person have so much capacity to love another?

Halloween Half Term

My plans for half term were to spend a lot of quality time with the children, as on school days the time in between school pick up until bedtime just seems to evaporate. There is always so much to be done during the week, whether it's a school activity, swimming lesson or playdate, then cook dinner, reading and bath followed by the bedtime routine. The one thing which we never ever miss out is our bedtime story. We snuggle up into my king bed with me in the middle and each child either side of me, with their chosen story for the night. It's the favourite part of my day, firstly because I get lots of cuddles and giggles, and second it means that I am closer to my daily 'me time'!

One of the quality time activities I planned was baking of course! R had received a cookbook as a birthday present as well as a baking set, apron and hat so we decided to put these to use. She took her time poring over every pretty picture of baked goodies and settled on a few of her favourites. The next step was to find all the ingredients and this meant a trip to Tesco because R had picked some of the most intricately decorated recipes that I did not have all the ingredients for. Luckily I managed to go on my own to do the shopping otherwise R would have wanted to buy everything on the shelves. It was just as well, because I very nearly did this myself! There was a 3 for 2 offer and I just had to make the most of this and replenish my supplies of baking ingredients. I now have a huge bag of supplies in the middle of my kitchen and I need a whole cupboard for baking! This means a major reorganisation of my kitchen, which I have left for another day...for now we can use them straight from the bag in the middle of my kitchen.

So far we have made chocolate biscuits and vanilla biscuits. For the first effort, there were ok but a little too greasy. I accidentally added too much sugar because I measured the wrong quantity and realised just as soon as I had put it into to mixture, which is irreversible. But the children still ate what they made and were very pleased with them. Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the finished goods, but I did managed to get a picture of them in the process.

We also went to Bekonscot Model Village, which I have not been back to myself since I was a child. The weather was always going to be a nuisance as it is an outdoor attraction, but I had to take the chance as R has been asking to go for a whole week. As it turned out, the sun was shining on the way there, and when we arrived it started to rain. That didn't stop us as we had our umbrellas with us and we could carry on along the route through the village. Luckily the rain wasn't heavy and only lasted for 5 minutes and then stopped and for the rest of the time it was quite bright. The rain never dampens the children's excitement at whatever they may be doing. They were thrilled at feeling like giants among a zoo, funfair, castle, hotel, horse racing and mini steam train among many. We ended up going around the village three times and then they spent some time in the very pretty and colourful playground there.

Camera, Photo, Canvas!

I realised while reading back over some of my recent posts, that I have not been posting many photographs. This is really because I am hardly ever using my proper camera, but my iPhone to take pictures. My digital camera is not that great anymore, and what I really, really need is an SLR camera.
This brings me nicely onto the blog of a friend who is running a competition to win a 20 x 28 inch canvas from HelloCanvas.co.uk. You can read about her review of the canvas she had made, as well as the details of this competition on her blog http://allbabyadvice-blog.com/

This is the photo I would love to have on a canvas. Naturally, it's my two children and although they seem to be naturals at having their picture taken, this is not the case at all! Like most children, it is so hard to get them to both look in the same direction at the same time and I struggle to get R to stand still without striking the most ridiculous poses and face pulling stunts.
This almost acceptable picture was probably achieved after about 30 shots, and it's the best of many, many, many more!
So it will be a reminder of my hard work and a motivator to keep at it. One of my next goals will be to get a good close up of their faces together, and also one of me and them together, good enough to get blown up onto a canvas.
It is also the day before K is due to have his plaster cast removed, so this is probably the last picture taken of him with it on.

Thoughts of the day....

I discovered a new set of feelings today. Well, I seem to be feeling them each and every day. Feelings I never knew I could have. Feelings that just grow and swell within me day after day. My children fill me with wonder and amazement every day. Sometimes I just stare at them in awe! Is that weird? Sometimes I feel that I don't want them to grow up anymore so I can enjoy their sweet innocence perpetually. I love their wide-eyed innocence when they are in awe of something they find truly amazing.

As a mother, I make lists in my head as I drift off to sleep. When I saw this scene acted by SJP in the film "I Don't Know How She Does It" I was so excited that I could show my husband that this is exactly what goes on in my head as I lie in bed.
Another line from the movie which I loved was the following description of mothers:
"While apart from their children, mothers are wondering what they're doing, wishing they are safe and hoping they are happy."

Lessons in life: What you can and cannot do

1. You cannot make everyone happy, so look after number 1, because no-one else will

2. Pick your battles - it's a cliche but you win some, you lose some

3. You are not always right

4. Learn how to make decisions, it is an essential life skill which you don't learn at school. At school you mainly learn how to follow instructions and a set of rules. 

5. Respect and trust have to be earned in any relationship, even from your own children

6. Take everyday action towards your goals

7. You are only limited by your attitude

8. Be grateful for all you have

On that last point, I feel that I'm finally starting to get my life back. I don't have the duty of taking K with me everywhere. There is so much we take for granted in our lives. Our health. Our ability to see, hear, walk, talk, feel, touch, and even just to breathe. Our wealth. The roof over our heads, clean running water, heating, electricity and gadgets. Cars, education, holidays, restaurants and entertainment. Doctors, medical care and medicine, laws and their enforcers. We are lucky enough to see all these things as necessities in our lives. Imagine if you lost just one of these things. It can turn your world upsidedown. Now imagine losing 2,3 or 4 and you have entered what the Western developed world calls a Third World country....

Courgette, Carrot and Chocolate

The title of this post might suggest that I have made something using all these ingredients in the same recipe. This is not the case, but I have used all these ingredients to make something which you might not easily guess.
Let me first tell you how I came up with these three things. Well, I found myself with an abundance of carrots and courgettes (and also mushrooms) in my fridge so I decided to make a batch of ragu using these vegetables finely grated in it. I have frozen some to use later. And chocolate...I had a large and tempting bar of cooking chocolate in my kitchen pantry which I wanted to use before its use by date.
I still had an excess of vegetables so my next plan was to make cakes. I made a carrot and walnut cake, and a courgette cake. Some of you may have heard of a courgette cake but those of you who haven't, it really works! It was the first time I've made it and it looked and tasted like a real sponge cake.
So here are the recipes

Carrot and Walnut Cake

150g wholemeal self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp ground mixed spice
7 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 medium eggs
100g butter or reduced fat spread. I love to use Flora Cuisine in baking, it is already in liquid form so you don't have to soften it as you would with butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g finely grated carrots
60g roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to fan 160C
Line a cake tin with baking parchment
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix together
Place the mixture into the tin and cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the tin size.


Courgette Cake

I couldn't find the photo of it but it did look very similar to the carrot cake above!

250g finely grated courgette
2 large eggs
125ml vegetable oil
75g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, and grease and line a cake tin
Make sure the grated courgette is sieved to remove excess water.
Cream the eggs, sugar and oil in a bowl.
Sieve in the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and mix well.
Stir in the courgetter
Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes
Test it with a wooden skewer and if it comes out dry then it is ready.
Leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning out.

Variation
Add in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder and half a teaspoon of mixed spice.
Add in 50g chopped walnuts and the juice and zest of 1 orange


Finally, I made a chocolate cake for A's birthday which happened to fall on Friday13th this year. I'm not a very superstitious person but I am very conscious of days like Friday13th, and while I don't have a fear of it, I do feel slightly relieved when it has passed without incident.
It is the best chocolate cake I've ever made, and it can only get better so I am now waiting for the next occasion to bake a cake. I usually have a homemade maderia cake at all times, but I have built up a resistance to it which means I can bake the cake and not eat any of it. I haven't managed to do with chocolate cake yet. When I make a chocolate cake, I EAT chocolate cake!

Here's how I made it


225g Self raising flour
35g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
4 tablespoons water
125g caster sugar
125g light brown sugar
150g butter
3 medium eggs, beaten
150ml cream

Preheat oven to fan 160C
Grease and line the base of 2 x 20cm tins with baking parchment
Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and set aside.
Place chocolate and water in a small heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water
Using an electric whisk, cream the sugars and butter together until light and fluffy
Gradually add the beaten eggs, with a little of the flour after each addition
Add the cream and the melted chocolate
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes or until firm
Leave the cake to cool

To make the ganache, place 200g plain chocolate, broken into pieces with 300ml double cream over a bain marie until well combined and melted.
Pour over the centre of the cake and gently spread out over the top and sides of the cake

I made mine using a bundt cake mould and it works just as well!

Banana ice cream crumble

A simple but SO satisfying dessert, or just when you feel like a treat, and best of all it's extremely easy!!

Take a ripe banana, peel it and cut into 1cm thick slices. Put these on a plate and put it in the freezer for 2 hours or so. When the banana slices are frozen, mash them up with a fork until they resemble ice cream, or you can put them in a blender instead.
Crush some plain digestive biscuits in a bowl. Add a scoop of banana ice cream. Crush some more digestives over the top, and drizzle with golden syrup, honey or toffee sauce. Eat. Enjoy. Wow.