home alone!

P took Emm with him to his parents in the Midlands and I am home alone! For the first time since she was born, which is over nineteen months! I was worried sick about the two of them on the road for 2 hours, even though P is a very careful driver. But they arrived safe and sound and I'm a lot calmer now. I was craving a weekend of doing nothing, but i couldn't help but sweep and mop, and tidy away the laundry and put on some more, and to mow and fertilise the lawn.

Then I cycled to the veg shop, yes, cycled, just got on my bike and went, no buggy, no wrestling with car seats and keys, and mainly, no toddler to lift and carry! So easy!

So far I'm really enjoying my little holiday, it's strange to have the house to myself, to do what I want, with no demands on me. I even had crisps with my ham sandwich for lunch, I never do that when Emm's around as it would be setting a bad example for her.

I'd say it'll be very lonely tonight, but for now I'm happy as a piggy in sh*t, especially as the house isn't a pig sty! Usually the first thing Emm does in the morning, is to get at least half of all her toys out and spread them out all over the house. Later she'll insist on eating her snack at her own little table and as soon as I look away she'll be sneaking out and I'll find banana squashed into the sofa, and she'll carry in compost and grass from the garden... but today I'll only have to clean up after myself!

Some of the things I might do over my quiet weekend is to...

  go for a swim, the tide should be in soon
  start the next sookie stackhouse  novel
  eat lots of fresh strawberries with greek yoghurt
  sleep in for as long as I like
  shower for as long as I like
  paint my toenails
  surf the web uninterrupted
  have a mid day nap

But by this time tomorrow I think I'll be waiting at the door for my husband and daughter to arrive back!

June! And the sun is shining, too!

I've managed to let all of  May go by without a post. I have excuses though, we went to Germany for my sister's wedding, which was brilliant, even if it was extremely cold. 7 degrees in the afternoon is not a lot for mid May! Emm was supposed to be a flower girl, but she decided she'd rather hold on to the basket and keep all the petals to herself...

Thankfully we got to fly to Germany, we were worried we might have to go by ferry and car on a murderous 24 hour trip trying to make it in time for the big day. On the way home however we got delayed for two days because of the ash cloud, we didn't mind to much though, we knew before we'd set off for the airport, P could work from my parents' house and Emm and I got to spend another day with the family. My dad's birthday will be next hopefully the volcano will stay quiet for that!

After Germany, we had a week at home, before Emm and I headed off to Switzerland, with my friend Deborah, to visit friends of ours in the Alsace and in Zurich. We had a great time, although Deborah might have had quite enough of toddlers and babies! Emm took a real shine to her and was babbling Debbie-Debbie-Debbie all day long. She even talked about her in her sleep! The lives of the two friends are so different. The girl in Alsace moved there because of her husband's job, and he picked a run down house in a tiny village for them to live. She didn't have much influence on the decisions as at the time she was just after giving birth to their second child, and having a horrible time with breastfeeding (mostly due to undiagnosed thrush and lack of support from her hospital/GP/nurse). She's now stuck there in a dark and dingy house, with no friends, with nobody to talk to all day with a very lively 4 year old and a baby! The other friend is happy as a flea, having decided to move to Zurich after separating from her husband, meeting her new partner there and  living  in a bright and modern apartment with their new baby.

Now we're back home, with a mountain of laundry to do, but the sun is shining and we're in and out of the garden, hanging the washing, swinging, playing with stones and herbs... Emm loves the herbs, she picks bits of oregano and thyme and chews on them. If she tries to put stones in her mouth I have to be strict though, I say no quite sternly, take the stone away and bring her into the house with me. Hopefully she'll learn soon and I can be a bit more relaxed outside with her!

I just hear another load of washing finishing, so I better head off, to my probably boring, but very enjoyable life!!

mothers' night out

We recently had one of our local mothers' nights out, as always great fun! It's amazing how having a baby changes your social life! Cut off your work mates by distance and change of schedule, the local mums replace the colleagues. They are the women who have the same problems and joys as yourself, instead of moaning about your boss you'll be moaning about your husbands (never in earnest though) and instead of lunch in town it's playdates at your neighbours'...

Recently we went out to a chinese restaurant that had a '4 courses and a bottle of wine for two' offer, which went down very well. The proprietor was happy to see a big group of lovely ladies take over the majority of his restaurant, and I could see the interest, and dollar signs in his eyes when he realised we weren't there to celebrate a birthday, or anything else for that matter, we were just there for a night out. The food was lovely, and the more energetic of us insisted we try a nightclub in the area.

The nightclub was some experience. It had recently been done up and looked promising, and we negotiated a reduced entrance fee, but once we were inside, the clientel and band slowly caught our attention! A trio of middle aged dolled up ladies were singing their hearts out on the stage, dressed in trendy sparkly dresses and leggings, hair and make up also much like you'd see at a 21st birthday party! My friend described one of them as a 'postmenopausal Pink'! Their voices were impressive, their dancing looked extremely tired and bored. Apparently they were big in the 80s, I wouldn't be surprised if their songs were recorded and just played back!


The guests were scary looking, to say the least! It felt like we'd walked into the set of 'shameless'! Hair was dyed either pitch black or snowy white (aka platinum blond taken to the extreme), emphasising the orangey brown make up (just like the band), big golden earrings were weighing down earlobes, competing for attention with clunky gold necklaces and rings. The age ranging from teenagers to pensioners (I think a birthday was being celebrated in one of the corners, that would also explain the extremely classy balloons on every table!).

Some of the older women looked like the kind that would be the boss in her prison common room, stocky, at first glance mistaken for a man, wearing leather blazers or checked shirts, and heavy work boots. Some of the young ones were sporting belly tops (showing off a post baby belly) and low slung jeans. We soon decided to try and avoid eye contact in case we'd provoke a fight, so I can't remember what the guys looked like!

After a few drinks however, we relaxed and had a great time, some of us even hitting the dance floor! Everybody in the place was just there to have a good time, scary outfits or not! I wonder if we looked pretentios to the other guests!

First night away from Emm for the two of us

Last week P and I went to a wedding and stayed over! His mum came to babysit, and Emm didn't seem to be upset in the slightest when P and I left in our finery. While I was really reluctant, I've never left her with anyone but P overnight, and I only spent one night away from her so far, I have to say it was great after all! I couldn't resist to text hourly until she was asleep, but still, The ceremony was lovely (even though the priest kept calling the groom Ann instead of Alan!), the bride was stunning, the food delicious, and the drinks plentiful! I chatted to loads of people, even though I hardly knew anyone, and was on dancefloor for almost every song! It was a great night! We even lasted through another round of drinks in the residents' bar, and then hit the hay.

We had one of those hotel rooms with a double and a single. I woke up the next morning wondering about the pillow and folded duvet on the floor... Then I remembered! I woke up in the middle of the night thinking 'Oh no, Emm can't sleep in the single bed, she'll fall out!' I then decided to make her a bed on the floor, thinking 'good job she's still small, I can fold the duvet to make a mattress and a blanket!' Only when I looked for her in the double bed and she wasn't there did I remember that she was at home in her cot, safe and sound!

Thankfully I wasn't hungover at all, as I stuck to vodka and soda, apart from the wine and champagne early on, but I must have been drunk enough, to build a bed for the little one!

Emm had the biggest grin on her face when we came home, so sweet... She also started saying Granny now, even though it sounds more like gaddy! She's got about 80 English words now, and 45 German, we wrote down all the ones we could think of last week. I think that's not bad for 18 months. And she's started to walk on her own, which is so cute, she's so proud of herself!

No crafting done in ages, I hope I won't have to start her dress again, but maybe I should?? She hasn't put on any weight in ages, but she grows and grows, all her tops are getting too short, and she went from 3.5 to 4.5 in her shoe size in 8 weeks!

Anyhow, enough proud mammy babbling, I'm off to help my friend declutter her wardrobe!

i successfully ignored my bad mood today!

i was so tired. and terribly premenstrual... moody, in need of ridiculous amounts of chocolate, crying at the newspaper i'm lining my compost bowl with... this morning i was tempted to not do anything, to stay at home and clean and tidy up and nap when emm sleeps and then laze about for the rest of the day.

but thankfully i changed my mind! instead i baked 16 carrot and pineapple buns, brought them up to mum&baby coffee morning and spent a lovely 2 hours, as did emm.
then, even though i'd more or less decided i wasn't going to go into town for my colleague's birthday lunch, i changed my mind, and called to say i'd be a little late, got petrol for the car and we went in! that way i just joined them for a dessert and coffee, instead of the whole wine and dine occasion, which would have been too expensive, and too long for emm to sit through! she had a great time playing with several of my colleagues, i got to catch up with my friends from work, and by four o'clock we were on our way back home, in great humour, and with possibly girly drinks planned for tomorrow night!

sometimes it's good to just ignore the tiredness and feeling down, and make the most of the day! err, probably always, really! as long as there's a smidgen of energy left in me!

the physical tiredness is catching up though, so i'll be off to bed now!

a perfect sunday afternoon

After an already great Saturday with cycling (with Emm and my friend Deb) and lunch (where P joined us), today turned out to be lovely too! I finally mowed the lawn (as the ground isn't like a sponge anymore, yay!), in the meantime Emm crawled around the rest of the garden, which resulted in her first set of clothes doing the rounds in the washing mashine by half twelve.

Then we headed out for a surprisingly good value lunch in 'Seasons', to the pound shop for a bucket and spade, and then to the beach, where Emm had an absolute ball, as did her parents. She was so content, she loved everything, the sand, the seaweed, all the stones and shells, paddling in one of the low tide puddles... She conked on the way home in the car and was transferred to her bed without even blinking an eyelid. Which gave us time to mess around in the garden a little more. In the evening we just picked up some pizzas, as we were all drunk on sunlight and fresh air.

We'll have to be good for the rest of the week and bring packed lunches and no more ordering out, the quota for eating out and lazy food is definitely used up already! Thankfully I have a stew ready to be finished tomorrow and fridge and pantry are stocked well.

Such a treat, a whole sunny weekend! My freckles have come out, my toenails are painted, I daresay, summer is here! Hopefully it'll be a good one for a change!

bread

After lots of cookie baking i made some easter bread to bring down to the inlaws last weekend, it's a lightly sweetened white yeast bread dough, with sultanas and raisins mixed through, glazed with a mix of honey and butter. The eggs in the centre are died with red onion skins (not really the colour i was expecting) and the chocolate bugs and bunnies are from germany. 

I'd love to be the type to bake my own bread every other day, but unfortunately I'm not... Luckily our local shop recently started to sell Aisling Bakery Breads, they do a great 'Turnover', it's only a euro and has all of four ingredients: Flour, water, yeast and salt. It's really delicious! And only on Tuesday I discovered they also started to sell Soul Bakery Breads, the fancy, fruity ones! I got a Raisin and Apricot loaf, no added sugar, no crap, but it's so sweet and lovely, especially toasted, spread with a bit of salted butter! I hope it's not a once off and they'll continue to offer them! 

I've just put Emm to sleep and better start thinking about what we'll have for dinner tonight and make a shopping list...

IKEA bootie

Hours of unpacking and assembling later (I can feel my arm and shoulder muscles something shocking!) here we are with our new set up! I think I will need an oilcloth tablecloth, as the veneer won't last long with Emm at the table! It looks lovely and uncluttered, although it'll take some getting used to. It's so stark and dark, whereas my old table and chairs were light and warm...

But there is so much more space now, and the table extends out on two sides, so we'll still be able to have people over for dinner (hence the two extra chairs in the corner (they'll go into the attic for my sewing table and the desk (formerly known as kitchen table). It's nice to properly sit 'around the table' as a family now, before it was always one of us sitting next to Emm, which was really awkward for helping her eat.

The dark furniture brings out the dark bits in the wooden floors, and the lower design makes the room look higher, but at the moment the focus is really drawn down, I will have to get some dark picture frames, and maybe some wallmounted shelves (scary, with our hollow walls...), so there is a bit of contrast above 'waist level' in the room! The kitchen and dining area don't flow as well any more. I was all for getting the light ash colour, but P loved the dark, and it goes better with the chairs. We didn't go for the Tobias chairs in the end, it's very wide and bulky.

Emm's new shoes

Aren't they too cute? I got them 2 weeks ago for her! She sometimes takes off her much more expensive proper pre-walkers and brings me these to put on her!

busy busy

we've been keeping busy here, no crafting to speak of, but visitors from germany, childminding, visits to P's parents and lots of cooking and baking.

today we've got a trip to ikea planned, to look at the bjursta table and the tobias chair, and to get an antilop (for little visitors, and to bring down with us when we visit p's parents (we usually go on a sunday when the house is quite full, and there's always a short supply of chairs, so bringing the handysitt is not an option))

oh, i just saw the new chair by handysitt! http://www.minui.com/Products---UK-190.aspx?ProductID=PROD16&VariantID= together with the seat (that we already have) it makes a high chair, or it can be used on its own! http://www.minui.com/Products---UK-190.aspx?ProductID=PROD14&VariantID=

if we go for the ikea chairs, it'll be quite a shift towards the modern from our relatively traditional current dining furniture. the table isn't ideal, i much prefer solid wood to veneer, and i prefer slightly tapered legs, but we're looking for a smaller table that we can extend, only when needed, as the dining area is so small and emm loves to drive her little car and hopefully soon she'll be walking and running, too! we don't want to spend too much money, as in a few years we hopefully will be able to extend out the back and make a dining room there.

We need to talk about Kiev...

...is the title of this Irish Times article by Domini Kemp, on Chicken Kiev!

I made both the Kievs and the salad with mustard dressing today, yum yum!

Emm loved the salad! I gave her the crunchy bits of the cos leaves, and some of the dressing as a dip, and she ate it all! I made the dressing with lemon juice, instead of vinegar, and as I'm not keen on graininess of our wholegrain mustard, i whizzed the dressing up with the liquidiser, causing the cream to start looking whipped! The finished product looked a lot like thin mayonnaise, but mmmh, so much more delicious! I substituted fresh tarragon with dried, and added more lemon juice at the end.

I had to make the Kievs without the pine nuts, as I wasn't going to spend 6 quid on rancid looking kernels in the supermarket (they'd gone brown at the tip, that's not normal, is it? (Don't get me started on the yoghurt I accidentally bought, not looking at the best before date, it's only just 4 weeks and 2 days out of date! I wonder do they not check the dairy shelves at all, ever, or are they deliberately trying to sell it anyways? Grocery Customer Services weren't even apologetic or surprised when I called them afterwards! They just said, 'Ah, yes, come in with your receipt and we'll refund you.')).

The Chicken Kievs were quite work intensive to make, But I now have some lovely homemade garlic butter in the freezer, and 2 more chicken kievs and 2 'chicken tenders', which is nice to know. The kievs turned out lovely, really moist, with a crispy coating. The cooking time in the recipe didn't work for us at all though, it said to bake them for ten minutes, after frying golden on both sides, but it took nearly 20 minutes and we lost some precious garlic butter in the process of checking if they were done.

The recipe said to just serve the chicken and salad, but in keeping with German and Irish tradition I made some potatoes too, which by the way were great with the dressing!

Off to Bogland tomorrow...

mmmmmh Buchweizentorte (buckwheat cake)

I had 7 toddlers, 2 babies and several mums in my house this morning, pandemonium! My little one learned to climb onto the armchair and the coffee table and to open the patio door! (probably from the other kiddies!) . She had to run off her sugar rush (loads of raisins, carrot&pineapple muffins, cowboy cookies and mini rice cakes) before her sleep, but she went down eventually!

I used the time to peel raisins off the floor, sweep and mop the whole place, wipe down the furniture, do the dishes and put on a wash (I know, my life isn't very exciting...), and now am deservedly sitting down with a coffee and a slice of buckwheat cake, marveling at what a perfect combination of flavours it is!! So good I had to post about it immediately! The recipe is from the back of the flour bag, with some improvements my mum came up with over time.

Buckwheat cake (Buchweizentorte)

Beat

5 egg whites until stiff, set aside. Beat

5 egg yolks with

150g caster sugar until creamy.

Sift

45g self raising flour,

45g buckwheat flour and

1/2 level teaspoon baking powder, add to egg and sugar mix, and stir until just combined.

Carefully fold in the egg whites and pour the mix into a lined spring form (about 9in diameter)

Bake at 175C for about 30 min in a fan oven, or about 40 min in a normal oven, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool under a clean tea towel.

For the filling you will need

about 200g (half a jar) cranberry sauce (LIDL do a good one, it's called either cranberry sauce or Preiselbeeren),

about 300ml (single/whipping) cream and

25-50g good dark chocolate (60% cocoa is perfect).

Whip the cream and chop or shave the chocolate. Cut your cake into two slices (three if you are able to, I'm no good at it! You'll need more filling if you do three)

Spread the bottom half with cranberry sauce and a layer of cream. Put the other half on top, spread with cream (you can cover the sides as well if you like) and sprinkle with chocolate. Go mad and do fancy little cream puffs with your piping bag if you like, and/or decorate with more of the cranberry sauce!

Keep chilled until serving, ideally for a few hours. Still very tasty on the second day, but don't count on any being left!

cowboy cookies

I made the cowboy cookies from 'vegan cookies invade your cookie jar'! They are so good!

The first batch I made with almonds, 60% chocolate from LIDL, and desiccated coconut, I didn't have ground flax seeds so i liquidised some golden linseeds with the soy milk, and it did turn to a gel like liquid as described in the book. The cookies turned out delicious, if a little dense.

                                                       

The second batch was made as the 'cowgirl cookie' variation, and i replaced 1/4 cup milk and 1tblsp ground flax seeds with 1 egg. The cookies are even more delicious, a little crunchier and lighter.

I've given loads of them away, to friends, and P brought some into work, and the rest are in my cake tin. I hadn't heard of cowboy cookies before, they are my new favourites. Next time I'm going to try freeze some of the dough, so i can make them fresh really quickly, when I have guests.

Other news, Emm is standing up on her own! And teething worse than ever, the poor mite!

I spy in the night sky don't I

Phoebe Io Elara Leda Callisto Sinope
Janus Dione Portia so many moons ... (blur - far out)




I got to try out 'google sky map' on an android phone, so cool! You point it at the sky and it tells you what stars you're looking at! Magical... 


I don't know if my phone has a compass, but I hope it does, and that somebody writes this app for those of us who don't possess a geek phone (as i like to call the nexus and it's android companions)... 

another knitting lunch break, and pancakes

As the weather was so nice Emm and I went to the seaside again, after a not so exciting trip to B&Q to get sealant for the leaking toilet (blurgh). Emm fell asleep on the way there so I got an hours knitting on her "little sister's dress", while looking out at the sea and sky and passersby. And eating mini chocolate rice cakes. after that we went for a walk, and to discover that the shoe shop that used to do the 'startrite' kids shoes, doesn't do any childrens shoes any more! And that the special offer of 1€ Johnson&Johnson wipes in the local shop excluded the unperfumed ones. Coming to terms with the fact that this just wasn't going to be a fun shopping day we went to the play ground, where Emm had lots of fun on the swings, and she walked all the way back to the car, still mostly insisting on two hands (my back is sore, I hope she'll get a little braver soon, we're practising lots so fingers crossed).

I'm so grateful to have my own car, it's such a treat!

Oh, yes, Pancake Tuesday, we had german style pancakes (big thin ones), with a creamed spinach filling (bacon, garlic, chili, spinach, cream, nutmeg, and some leftover grated mozarella). No photos unfortunately, and for dessert we had the leftover pancakes with real maple syrup! the shop assistant was trying to get me to buy the cheaper syrup, he felt guilty for the price difference, not realising that the cheaper one wasn't maple syrup at all, but golden syrup with maple flavouring! I try and stay away from artificial flavours as much as I can! I'd rather buy the real stuff, once a year, than have the cheap one all year round! Emm quite liked the spinach pancakes, we rolled them up for her, but she preferred the maple syrup ones!

So weird, Pancake Tuesday, I know a good few people here, that eat pancakes only on Pancake Tuesday! In Germany there's no such thing, everybody is either tired out from karneval, or still celebrating Fasnacht/Fasching! When I was a kid, we had pancakes about twice a week, and now my mum still makes some at least once a week, more often if her grandkids are over. She serves them with molasses or jam, as a special treat we sometimes got fried banana with them, but in the days before non stick pans it was a lot of extra cleaning up!

In the area I come from there's also buckwheat pancakes, a very savoury affair, quite bitter! They are made with coffee, water, eggs and the buckwheat flour (and salt if you're not using bacon), and fried in lard or oil, with  tiny pieces of bacon thrown in. They are very thin and crispy, and we had them regularly when my granny was still doing the cooking.

The savoury pancakes came into the picture in college, spinach soon becoming my favourite. They were such a quick and easy dinner to make, not too expensive, and getting some protein and other useful things into me, and using up lots of veg from the fridge.

And tonight, we had shredded duck and pancakes, the chinese kind! You know, the really thin little pancakes, spread with hoi sin sauce, thin slivers of cucumber and spring onion, then rolled up with the duck meat? So yummie, a bit naughty, but we had some steamed broccoli, too, to balance it all out!