Sunday 29 June 2008

100th Post

Cripes, I've managed 100 Posts over the last year or so.
I blame Meridian for it all.

If I were crafty, I'd do a giveaway to the nicest comment, but I'm not particularly crafty at the moment, so I think I should do something else.....but what.....
Maybe I should do a cake give away? but how will I post it, if some random person from far away makes a lovely comment?
I could just be a total humbug and say stuff it, but surely that wouldn't be good....
Maybe if the nicest comment is local I could do cake, and if its far away I could get Meridian to do something, oh no, drat that will never do......
If in doubt I could resort to offering a bag of Crazy Bones! that's it, that's what I'll do, Crazy Bones x 1 pack to the nicest comment then, wonder how many people will now do this, just for the sake of their kids eh???

So disaster struck this weekend, or at least in the eyes of dh and I, as we had planned a wonderful night out without the kids, for the 1st time in over a year. As we have very busy lives at the moment and hardly see each other, let alone by ourselves, or see our friends, we had been really looking forward to this. Plus its about the only weekend until Xmas Day that we're in the same part of the country together, without work getting in the way, gah!
I drove the kids to grans (1 hr away) I drove back, I went to get dh and our friends, all 10 of them, we got to the pub, ordered a drink and my mother phoned and said 'come and get the kids, dd2 has been sick, she needs her mum' Which is not what I was hoping for at all...........
So dh and I drove an hour to mums, got the sleeping ill child, who remained fast asleep until 6am......and got dd1 who wanted to stay, but it appeared the gp's weren't interested in this........

Anyway dd2 is off her food a bit today, but bar that seems ok in herself.....so our one chance of a night out this year, without having to come home early for a babysitter has passed us by. Gutted sums it up I think.

Yoghurt Ambrosia

So Richard popped by Friday night, so I thought I'd try out this recipe on him.

Yoghurt Ambrosia

300g of Greek Yoghurt (I have no idea why Greek? I used 0% fat btw)
300g of Double Cream (which is why I used the 0% fat Yoghurt!)
and Dark Muscavado Sugar
Ramekins
Clingfilm

Whip cream, then fold in yoghurt, spoon into Ramekins
Sprinkle the sugar over the top, then pop clingfilm over.
Place in fridge overnight, the Sugar melts into a gooey stickey layer.

Eat! I wasn't sure what these would taste like, but for a quick, icky sticky desert they're quite nice. Dh and Richard said they thought so anyway. Will try one out on Meridian later......

Thursday 26 June 2008

Sundays Cheesecake

I'm avoiding walking down the driveway in the rain to put out the remainder of the recycling, I'm also trying to ignore the huge pile of ironing awaiting my attention, I really must try and buy more none iron items......

So whilst I'm taking evasive action I thought I'd share that cheesecake recipe I was rattling on about in my previous post.

1 x 300g pot of cream cheese
1 x 300g pot of double cream
150g of light brown sugar
about 10 digestive biscuits
50g of butter
and
Some ramekins (I use the empty Gu pudding ones, great for kids jelly's too) but you can use a larger dish if you like?


Pop your digestive biscuits in a zip lock bag, get a rolling pin and hammer until into little crumbs = very good if your in need of aggression release :-)


Melt the butter in microwave or a pan, then mix the biscuit crumbs into it. Pop into the bottom of your dish and then leave to set in the fridge for a bit, whilst you make the topping.


Mix the sugar and the cream cheese together

Whisk the cream in a separate bowl or jug until thick, then fold into the cream cheese and sugar mix.

Pop the mixture on to the top of the biscuit base and chill

Top with fruit, I went for Strawberries, but you can fold in berries to the mixture, or caramelise some apple and drizzle over the top, ooh the possibilities are endless.

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Catching Up/Manic Sunday

Sunday was spent catching up with a variety of people.

The day started with a family breakfast, all 3 kids, dh and I in the same place, at the same time, rarity these days. Eggs, Bacon and Blueberry Pancakes for all bar dd1, who insisted on Chocolate Brioche instead? 4 year olds eh! Oh and lots of lovely orange juice, got us all set for the day.

Dh and son headed for work, whilst the girls and I headed for McArthurGlen http://www.eastmidlandsdesigneroutlet.com/consumer.asp to meet Carol and Mike for coffee, catch up and the latest edition to our family, Carols old bike, which is getting no use from her, so she's loaned it to me in a semi-permanent move :-) I just need to get two new inner tubes and we're in business, yay.
A good vanilla latte later, with a spot of fruity toast, plus smoothies for the girls, we set about on a wander about, pausing mainly at the play area, where dd1 met a friend from nursery, which made the whole trip even better for her. She also got to spend her hard earned cash on Plasticine, which some fabulous sculpture work came out of later in the day too.

The afternoon saw me making Cheesecake in preparation for my friends coming over in the evening, but 1st we had dd1's nursery friends to contend with. The two girls and a boy arrived in due course and they set about playing, mainly nicely for the whole, just a small wobble from dd1, when she realised she had to share all her stuff with them, but she soon got over that. They all stayed for tea, then I took two of them home, whilst H, dd1's 'boyfriend' stayed later, as agreed, so his parents could get to see Iron Man (what a fabulous film) I left dh with instructions to get them in the bath, whilst I was gone (yeah like that happened).

A small run to a close by village, and up a wiggly road in the middle, 'bakers hill' which I later discovered was named as such as in days gone by, the community bread oven was at the top of it, where the whole village went daily to get their bread/bake it! One child was dropped off and the other on the run back into town a few minutes later.

Upon arrival home, the kids were still not in the bath, and of course the next set of people, my old friends Liz and Jackie, and Jackies Dh Kevin, arrived. I'm not quite sure what they made of the chaos that greeted them, but they treated it with good will, and approximately two hours later, we'd managed to pack all the kids to bed and Meridian and dh had met my friends, slurped a coffee, then extracted a very happy and excited son to his home. At this point we put Pizza in the oven for the starving and munched the remainder of the tea I'd also produced earlier with dual purpose for the kids (dips, cucumber, peppers, cold sausages, pesto pasta, cheese and of course the cheese cakes! I'll post the recipe soon)

We spent a lovely evening chatting amongst ourselves about life the universe and everything. It was nice to meet Kevin, Jackies dh, as if you're a reader of this blog, you'll realise we've not met before, as Jackie and I have only recently got back in touch after about 15 years of no communication, again just due to life, the universe and everything. I'd also missed Jackies BBQ on Saturday for her birthday, as we'd all concluded that the kids wouldn't stand the rain and Jackies house, didn't need a party plus our 3 manic kids being bored in it. So was very happy she'd made the effort to come over and see us, when we'd so spectacularly let her down the day before on her birthday.

As you can see it was a manic Sunday, but a lovely one, what better way to spend a day than with friends.

Tuesday 17 June 2008

Rhubarb Cake/Rhubarb Fool

Ok, so this post is a few days later than I'd promised, sorry life and the vat return got in the way.

Here's what you've all been waiting for anyway (or so I like to kid myself) the recipe for Rhubarb Cake, courtesy of my mother, who again got it from her mother, you get the gist.

Rhubarb Cake

1lb Rhubarb, stewed and liquidised (this should make approx half a pint of puree cold, you can just mush the Rhubarb if you don't fancy liquidising it)
6oz Golden Syrup
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Margarine
1lb Self Raising Flour
(or 1lb of Plain and a teaspoon of Baking Powder)
2 tsp ground Ginger
2 tsp ground Cinnamon
2 Eggs

Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.

Pre-heat oven to Gas 4 (about 160 works nicely on our fan oven)

Put the syrup, sugar and margarine in a saucepan and melt over a low heat.

Sieve the flour and spices into a bowl, mix, then make a well in the middle.
Pour in the syrup mixture from the saucepan, give it a good stir.
Lightly beat the Eggs and add these to the mixture, again giving it a good stir.
Then finally add the Rhubarb, again mix it all in well, with a wooden spoon or good none stick spatula.

Pour the mixture into your loaf tin, and pop in the oven for 1 and a half hours, if it needs a little longer, so be it, but don't forget to test your cake with a skewer to ensure the middle has fully cooked.

Please leave plenty of space above your tin as well, as this cake will rise :-)

Enjoy with a lovely cup of Earl Grey tea or a nice Coffee.

If you happen to have any Rhubarb left over, pop it in a few ramekins, chill, then top with whipped cream, with a sprinkle of sugar on top, for a lovely Rhubarb Fool desert.

Sunday 15 June 2008

Accessories

So yesterday I worked in the morning, then after dh and I swapped it was time to do the chores and also accessorise the new driveway.

The kids and I dug the Fathers Day cards out and got those sorted, did a driveby on Carols and dropped her Birthday Card too, then it was onwards to the Garden Centre.
As obviously everyone was asleep when we got there, I had two very grumpy kids on the way around. Thus I opted to pop them into a wheely cart, which I discovered only upon our leaving, appeared to also have a battered note on it, stating that customers should refrain from putting there kids in, ahem, never mind eh? They had just take the best part of £25 off me in plants, so surely no reason for complaint.

Then we hit Tesco for the rest of the weekly shop type thing, I did only intend to get a few bits, but you know how it goes, I'm rubbish at sticking to lists, when there's a bargin to be had.

Once home I got all creative in the planting department, and with my trusty mob in tow we created two hanging baskets, and filed 3 Torbay Palms into some pots acquired from Ikea earlier this week, once I get a decent photo I'll post it up here. Then I managed to miss the begining of Doctor Who, which wasn't a bad thing as it wasn't a good episode by any stretch, but the reason was the Rhubarb Cake that I made, which shall be my next post on here later.

Thursday 12 June 2008

LARP and after.....

So after Mallorca, spent a whole day at home, prior to leaving for Wales to run www.ascendancylrp.co.uk on behalf of my missing other half. He who decided that running D&D 4th edition, in store with 3 kids in tow was a good idea, ha, ha, haaarrrrrrrr (he won't be doing that again)

So basically I took the van to Wales, Grum organised the event (whilst being very poorly, so we stuck him in a directors chair and he did fine from there) and Colin, Richard and Jeff did a damn fine job of Refing it. I did reasonable hitty crew, along with the usual suspects and Iz did a great job with the kit as usual. From the feedback on the boards the players liked it too, so yay for good event all round. Made a huge change for me to be there sans kids, 1st time in 4 years I actually got a whole weekend of crewing with no nagging bother, love the kids, but bless em, nice to have a play without :-)

Since the weekend its been work, work and more work, with horrible tonsils and a bit of gah? inbetween.
Speaking of which dh has just rung me at 23.25 to say he's on his way home, can I get tea on (its cooking as we speak) let it not be said between us, that we're not working the hours to attempt to get this business to work.

Our driveway got finished by my Dad today, hurrah....on this note, I went into the kitchen earlier to find the sink mixer tap has split up the back WTF???? never heard of one doing this, not ever.....water spurts out of it when its on, merely trickles when its not........so more expense, just when it was looking like we were getting straight. Crap house.

Mallorca

Lol, can't believe I got comments for my teaser post!

Oh cripes can't even think to write what the hell I've been upto....ok here's a rough guess.

Got out of bed at 'Oh God' o'clock and got on a plane. Did this without dh, as he had to stay and man the shop, but with two kids (insane yep) and my parents (barking I know) but hey, they paid for it, I only got to go, as I was needed to do the horrible bits with the kids, like the screaming tantrums etc......
Arrive at Mallorca at 10am ish, Raining, hard. Got luggage, which miraculously had survived transportation and baggage handling and got on taxi bus. Got to hotel, settled in, rambled onto beach, kids played, as vaguely sunny in afternoon, had hotel buffet tea (usual Spanish buffet oddities) took kids to kids disco, dd2 slept for 1st and last evening, dd1 partied, then we all went to bed.
Remaining days were breakfast buffet, poolside (pool bloody freezing dd2 refused to get in and exclaimed when we got into local pool for lesson yesterday, pool warm mummy!) or beach, with random coffee from shops (all Spanish local rubbish, no good lattes in sight) followed by buffet tea, kids disco and bed. 2nd day evening mighty horrible for me, as dd1 knackered and needed bed, but dd2 wouldn't drop, was still bouncing on my head at 1am demanding TV on mummy...'to which my answer of, but its all in Spanish, German or French and Porn dear' wasn't really getting the message over........she finally fell asleep to Rock World TV, a chip off the old block........
The kids had a great time, bar dd1's incident with a Jelly Fish, which had managed to get through the nets and stung her knee, but half an hour later, she got the requisite fix it cream, after I'd waved her inflating knee at the Pharmacist and mouthed loudly in English 'STING' at her, my Spanish for this incident being sadly lacking, ahem. Anyone know the Spanish for Sting?
I was quite thankful we got some stuff to shut her up though, as left to my Dad we'd have spent the night in hospital, with his declarations of 'her immune system will sort it out' as her knee inflated even more.......he shut up after I informed him, he'd be looking after the remaining child if I were to spend the night in hospital........
Rest of time was good, I got a whole hour a day on a beach roughly to myself, so managed to read a magazine in three days! woo hooo
I also got half hour snorkling with my dad, whilst gran played with dd1, dd2 being fast asleep, awww. Saw a starfish and several larger ones too, was also pleasantly surprised by the smaller fish actually coming right into shore, so both dd's could watch them swimming around their feet.

Flight back was amusing, 23.30.......last flight out for the night......dd2 all way home, after seeing Doctor Who in the inflight magazine kept saying, on repeat, Doctor Who, Monsters, Buzzy Bees.....her dad has something to answer for.......

Tuesday 10 June 2008

Coming Soon

A proper post! in which I details life the universe and everything since Mallorca, bet you can't wait.....