St Patricks Day March 17th

Happy St Patricks Day everyone.

There was much excitement in our house this morning with my daughter discovering that a leprachaun had sprung the trap she had made and left her a stash of gold nuggets Oh and as pennance for the trap, he dyed the milk in our fridge green! Very useful for green pancakes for breakfast

Pancakes (1 cup flour, 1 cup green milk, 1 egg, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 25 ml melted butter and 1 tbsp honey) with fruit salad, lime juice, honey and yoghurt for breakfast…

Hope your little ones inspire you to break the mould and get stuck in to some St Paddy’s Day mischief. If there are no little ones, rely on your inner child Either way, enjoy

Lots of love x

Valentines Day

My Husband is of the opinion that Valentines Day is another commercial cash cow for opportunistic capitalists and to some extent I have to agree with him. I am however far more of a romantic and that side of me, usually wins over here. I do like to celebrate Valentines Day and will make a special effort for all of my family. Granted, I do not wish to fight over a restaurant booking or partake in the buying frenzy that is cards and chocolates, but I do think that having a day to celebrate love in its own right is just fine.

So my breakfast surprise for my daughters (DH will actually be away this Valentines …) will be to try Valentines Day Toast Cups – recipe from E is for Eat

For lunch (I am having my girl friends round for a glass of bubbly, something to nibble on and a good old-fashioned chinwag!) we will be trying Turkish Manti served with yoghurt and a pepper salsa – recipe by My Barbarian Table – for something different and new to me and I can’t wait to try this!

And to finish I am going to try my hand at making these heart-shaped Churros… recipe by Girl Meets Sugar who makes them look really easy and will serve them with a hot chocolate dipping sauce… Yuuuuuuum!

For dinner, as it’s just me and the girls, I think we will be having leftovers

If you or your kids are thinking about some cute Valentines gifts then see these cute homemade marshmallows by Little Skye

The Idea Room has really lovely FREE printables to share. So many great ideas to customise and turn just about anything into a Valentines message. Take a peek here.

I found a really cute gift tag idea via Hill City Bride for Plantable Paper. I think these would also make lovely valentines gift tags

Imperfect People has some really lovely ideas for Valentines gifts, like this Valentines bird feeder. Fun for the kids to make, cheap and easy, practical and won’t rot their teeth

This idea for conversation hearts by Less Than Perfect Parents is brilliant and simple but effective. Pin them up, turn them into a garland or bunting, use them as place setters or valentines cards… the uses are endless

And to wrap it all up, here is are a couple of clever valentines gift wrapping ideas by The House That Lars Built

Whatever you end up doing this Valentines, I hope you make a bit more of an effort than usual to show those that you love, just how you feel. Most of all though, enjoy

Lots of love x

Pancake Day and Mardi Gras

Tuesday will be a day for celebrating for many and we will no doubt be climbing on one or more of the proverbial band wagons, just for the hell of it There is lots of fun to be had at this time of year and the treats for the kids just keep on coming.

Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) or Mardi Gras (translates to Fat Tuesday) are all essentially one and the same thing… the last day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Celebrated by indulging in richer, fattier foods before the fast. On the menu… pancakes for us!!! The kids just love this because they get to eat pancakes for breakfast, lunch and supper!

Breakfast pancakes will have loads of fruit salad on the side and a drizzle of honey. Lunch will be pancake pockets filled with spinach and ricotta and for supper they will be rolled crepes filled with savoury mince, vegetables and cheese! Smiles all round.

Some other pancake ideas worth sharing…

Life and Kitchen has a recipe for these yummy looking Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze to share

or how about these Savoury Potato Pancakes from The Daily Spud

I am always amazed that by taking something ordinary and just changing how it looks, you can seriously make a child’s day. I know that mine would love these Good Morning Hearts by Sherbet Blossom. They are lovely!

Of course, it’s not all about pancakes! One day, I am going to sample beignets (and other creole delicacies) in New Orleans during Mardi Gras! Till then…

Enjoy the celebrations however you choose to

Lots of love x

Chinese New Year, Year of the Water Snake – February 10th 2013

Happy Chinese New Year everyone:) We kicked off our celebrations this afternoon and evening with friends by enjoying a feast of food and getting stuck into some arts and crafts activities with the kids.

Red Ted Art has some really cute Chinese New Year crafts that are accessible to all. See here … We made paper lanterns and imaginative snakes out of TP rolls…

Our Chinese New Year Crafts

I tried to incorporate the main elements of a Chinese New Years Feast in to my dinner so basically we ate lots! I say elements because this celebration is really to share the traditions of other people with my family and friends and so although not authentic, I try to stick to principal elements. My research said that we should serve this and that, and that and also this and eventually I just had to remind myself that I was just cooking for 4 adults and 4 kids and we had to actually eat it all so calmed down and came up with a menu I could cope with! We started with Marbled Eggs (Recipe courtesy of Pig Pig’s Corner) Pork Dumplings and Vegetable Spring Rolls. Mains was a production of BBQ Beef with Fried Rice and Roast Chicken with Noodles in a spicy broth. We finished off with Pineapple rolls (Recipe by Food4Tots) which I have read are a must have!

The Marbled Eggs… In the end, because I was serving to kids and novice palates, I decided to just colour the eggs with cochineal food colouring (added during boiling) and because we had so much to eat, I just used quails eggs. They were sooo pretty after colouring that I almost just kept them as is for decoration I also just served them with the dipping sauces alongside the spring rolls and dumplings.

Marbled Quails Eggs

The Pineapple Rolls… Well in the end, I made these more according to principle rather than following the exact recipe. Besides time constraints, I also had to consider equipment or rather lack thereof and so adapted things accordingly. In the end, I halved the pastry recipe, used a food processor to “crush” the pineapple and a rolling-pin to roll the pastry. I also only used about half of the required sugar as I thought it was sweet enough! Notes for next time… Roll the pastry thinner and leave the cloves and cinnamon in to the end when making the jam (It will be ok!)

In between all the crafting and eating, there was of course, lots of chatter and laughter as we caught up with friends. A really relaxed, fun afternoon and evening. And now I am going to retire to the sofa to rest off the meal

Enjoy the celebrations

Lots of love x

Burns Night 25th January

It’s Burns Night tonight and I am busy sorting what we will do to celebrate (somewhere there is Scottish blood in our family ) Why celebrate? Well, besides the fact that I believe that it opens a childs eyes to the rest of the world, and the fact that we have Robert Burns to thank for the New Years Eve anthem, “Auld Lang Syne”, it’s just plain fun!

I found some great recipes again on the Netmums website (for those interested in making from scratch) and I will be enlisting the help of my eldest to prepare our feast for dinner (a few cheats to keep it quick and simple because this week… well lets just say I am over it and ready for the Whisky!). We’ll be having Scotch Broth (store-bought though I had every intention of making my own!) to start and Haggis (store-bought and microwavable!) and Clapshot (I will make!) for mains. Then, let there be NO doubt that I am making Millionnaires Shortbread for dessert!

Let the feast and Friday night celebrations begin

Lots of love x

PS, Don’t forget the Address to a Haggis (Full address and Idiomatic Translation at Wikisource)

“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’ a grace
As lang’s my arm.”
~Robert Burns

Dating my Husband

Dating my husband is sort of like getting back to basics… or perhaps reality. I love the thought of us making special time for just the 2 of us. There is always that time where the kids have gone to bed and you chat and watch a bit of TV, but that is just unwinding, letting go of the day, enjoying the peace and quiet … not making an effort for each other and so as of this year, my vow is to change this!

DH and I have finally got round to organising a date… as in a night out… just the two of us I won’t have to eat cold food because I have been feeding the kids and I won’t have to worry about the time (well a little about the babysitters time…)Long term, we have a plan too! We will go OUT at least once a month and that we will alternate who plans the date. With that in mind, I have been scouring the internet for deals and ideas on what is good for date night. Here are some of the ideas I came across that I think are fun, cute and helpful…

Life in the Greenhouse posted some really fantastic ideas for Date Night but the way of choosing the dates is what I think is coolest. I will most definitely be doing this Will be fun for the date nights when we don’t go out

Lucky for me, some of the ideas on my 52 New Experiences list will work nicely for Date Night and I will definitely make the most of that They are more for warmer evenings than we are experiencing at the moment but will take a bit of planning so good to get started early!

One idea I have is for an al fresco candlelit dinner (planning required for outdoor dining area!) If I am organised enough, I can go on my cooking course and come home with something made or at least the know-how to make something fancy. Wild Pony has gathered some fantastic ideas for Al Fresco dining but I think this one is my favourite and what I will be aiming for. Doesn’t this look inviting?

Something else I have been wanting to do for ages and that is also on my list of 52 New Experiences, is setting up a Drive-in movie night in the garden at home (first show for the kids and second for us after they’re are tucked up in bed!) If I can recreate some of Miss Design’s atmosphere as shown here, I will be well pleased

Not everything has to wait for the evening and so one of the things I am looking forward to is a brunch Champaign picnic with hot air balloon ride (Off of Ryan’s new experiences list)

The Dating Divas have thought of the kids too and I think that their “Kid Date Night Envelope” is a fab idea. Will give you peace of mind that the kids are involved in both suitable and fun activities while you are out, especially if you are departing a while before bed time…

So here is to getting back to dating my husband and to many such experiences in 2013 and beyond

Lots of love

Make Every Moment Count

Make Every Moment Count.

You can never remind yourself enough to enjoy your children! I think that it is all too easy to get caught up in the day to day grind of chores, appointments and general mayhem and forget to show down and appreciate what is right there in front of you. Graceful Rose reminded me that I need to be a playful parent, not an old parent!! Here’s to having more fun every day and living through my inner child

Lots of love x

Lunch – Sweetcorn Chowder ala Phillipa :)

I am trying to do more in the kitchen with my eldest who is 6 years old. At the moment, she is very interested in recipes (I should say, creating her own!), but we never seem to find the time to try them out so as part of my New Years Vows, we are putting some time aside once a week to do something she wants to try This amounted to lunch for today… she was the Head Chef and I was the Sous Chef! She chose to try to make Sweetcorn Chowder which I have been threatening to make for ages. This is how we got on

Our recipe:

Ingredients

• 350 g frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
• 6 rashers maple-cured bacon (you could use cubed pancetta or leave it out altogether if you prefer, or even add smoked chillies instead)
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 1 baking potato, cut into small cubes
• 1 very low salt Kallo vegetable stock cube
• 250 ml whole milk (we used whole milk because of the kids, but skimmed would also be fine)
• 250 ml boiling water
• 1 tbsp extra mature grated cheddar
• 1/4 tsp spoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp mustard powder
• ground black pepper to taste (I was informed that this definitely made a difference by the said Head Chef!!!)

Method

• cut up the bacon into small strips (we used scissors to cut ours up)
• fry the bacon till starting to crisp then remove from the pan (sneak a taste)
• in the same pan, fry the onions, potatoes and spices together for around 5 minutes until the onions soften (taste again to see how cooked the potatoes are!)
• add the milk, water and stock cube and bring to the boil, cook for a further 5 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. (have a taste )
• add the sweet corn and half of the bacon and allow the soup to come back up to a boil (taste, of course)
• turn off the heat and use a hand blender to puree the soup. We didn’t want fully pureed soup as we like a bit of texture. (have another taste to check the seasoning)
• dish up and top with a sprinkle of cheddar cheese and the remaining crispy bacon
• eat up and enjoy!

All in all we were in the kitchen for 30 minutes which was slow going considering, but little 6-year-old fingers don’t work as fast (…and it doesn’t help to have an 8 month old trying to climb your leg at the same time!) It was so yummy (all the way through ) and Phillipa was so pleased to have made it herself. We had lots of fun doing it together. Got to make the most of the time we have and create more of these precious memories!

Lots of love x

52 New Experiences

Why is it that come the new year I feel an urge to start with a clean slate and with a fresh approach? It really should be a case of changing habits as and when rather than waiting for the first of January, but well, here I am, the 2nd of January 2013, and have worked out a few things for the coming year! Happy new year by the way

This year, I vow to spend more time in the kitchen with Phillipa and to make more things (not only food) from scratch! I guess I need to look at the calendar and book these things in. Time is already marching along! I have decided that this year will be the year that I shake things up a bit and I have found inspiration… 52 Brand New Experiences. 52 weeks to try 52 things I have never tried before.

I have created a list of my own to have weekly inspiration. It’s going up in the kitchen where I can cross items off as I go … here it is … in no particular order of course

1. Try rock climbing
2. Go for an allergy test
3. Make playdough with Phillipa for Erin from scratch
4. Go trampolining
5. Do a day cooking course
6. Attend a zumba class
7. Sign up for a French course
8. Go foraging for mushrooms
9. Go for a golf lesson
10. Meditate
11. Throw pottery
12. Attend a drumming workshop
13. Visit a fortune-teller
14. Ride a Segway
15. Enjoy a dinner by candlelight in the garden
16. Make a puffy quilt
17. Learn to ice skate
18. Go to a car boot sale
19. Volunteer at Surrey Wildlife Trust
20. Do a 10 km run
21. Go to a painting class
22. Host a pot luck dinner
23. Go somewhere local that I haven’t been before
24. Have afternoon tea at the Ritz hotel
25. Have “Drive-In” movie night in the back yard
26. Go to an auction
27. Go on a cake decorating class
28. Go to a food festival
29. Find a good babysitter and book a regular slot
30. Start up date night (To go with the babysitter )
31. Make a flower planter
32. Make salt dough ornaments and momento’s
33. Go on a Skid-Pan Training Course
34. Complete a DVD exercise programme
35. Actually make something from my Pinterest “Things I Want to Make” Board
36. Help Phillipa to make dinner of her choice from the recipes she invents
37. Go on a wine tasting
38. Get my legs waxed
39. Make my own nougat
40. Have a day of decluttering and purging of unnecessary junk
41. Spend a day with my camera and it’s manual
42. Go camping right by the sea
43. Make a bird feeder with Phillipa for the garden
44. Organise a family photo shoot
45. Visit a junk yard to look for items to recycle
46. Join a book club
47. Visit a friend I haven’t seen for a while
48. Go on a girls night out
49. Go to the theatre
50. Have a proper garden tea party with the girls
51. Make my own chilli oil
52. Set up a beach at home day, with splash pool, sand, umbrellas, sunscreen, pina coladas (for me)… the works

I am actually quite excited and have managed to get a friend to try it out too so I will have someone to push along with me. I am hoping to get hubby on board too, especially as there are things that we can do together. Anyway, I look forward to sharing my 52 new experiences with you.

Till then

Lots of love x

Neverland Birthday Party

To be honest, I was relieved when Phillipa and I settled on the idea of a Neverland Party. I am a little bit over the Disney princesses (it has been 5 years and we have been through most of them ) and some of the other ideas she had would have challenged me beyond all odds.

The nice thing about a Neverland party is that you can draw on the original J.M. Barrie Story as well as the new Disney Tinkerbell stories and of course, Jake and the Neverland Pirates for inspiration. There are so many characters for the kids to dress up as too which makes it easy for a party with girls and boys. My little fairy was very excited and assumed Tink’s persona for the occasion….

For the decorations, I broke out the Christmas lights… they made for a starry trail through to Neverland. I used other lights to add sparkle to Pixie Hollow where lunch was served. I made a Teepee for the Neverplains thanks to some brilliant instructions by Sew Mama Sew and added a few feathers and a fake tomahawk. I then used a table-cloth and pirate flag along with a skull drawn onto cardboard to create “Skull Rock”. Just to the left you could find Captain Hooks washing hung out on the line to dry. For the neighbouring “Mermaid Cove”, I used blue curtains for a waterfall where a Mermaid’s tail (just made with some shiny fabric and netting) and lei (one P made at another party) were also hung up to dry over the rocks and flamingo’s. I used a beige duvet cover draped over the couch to imitate the “beach” where I left a treasure chest and a telescope guarded by a crocodile…

Food was a picnic affair and the kids got to sample “Clock Pizza” (margarita pizzas with ham to make the clock face), Mermaid Nibbles (fish bites), “Crocodile Crunch” (crudite with dips), “Captain Hooks Pirate Ship and Cannonballs” (watermelon with melon balls and grapes), “Lost Boys Chow” (beetroot crisps with humus), “Captain Hook’s Pirate Treasure” (caramelised popcorn), “Peter Pan’s Swords” (veggie crisps), “Fairy Wands” (chocolate fingers), and Totem Poles (marshmallows, Tootsie rolls and licorice on toothpicks). I made a chocolate cake decorated with coloured mascarpone, crushed biscuits, sugar crystals and icing and chocolate cupcakes decorated with chocolate mascarpone and small fondant icing mini sculptures of things of Neverland.

Party bags were brown paper bags with Peter Pan quotes printed and glued on and then decorated with stickers. I filled them with a candy watch for Captain Hook, Fairy Dust and Fairy Wands for Tink, Chocolate Gold Coins for the pirates, either a wooden star or a wooden gingerbread man to represent the “Second Star” to Neverland and the lost boys (both to be decorated by the kids and can be used as Christmas Tree ornaments later) and then the kids got to choose a book.

I always do so much research first and find so many ideas of things that I want to try for the party. In the end, there are only so many things that you can achieve without going completely mad and so, here are some ideas I found but didn’t have time to execute…

These shimmering fairy wings by Disney Family.com would have made lovely decorations and even gifts for the party. Perhaps I will make some for my fairy anyway

Kids love pinatas and I think they are fun but am always a little nervous about kids swinging a bat at something or that there won’t be enough pull strings on the pull-string kind so I think these DIY Mini pinatas by Ruffled are a brilliant solution (just plan ahead )

I also thought that this Candy Button Punch Box by Celebrate the Big and Small would be a great party game, perhaps in conjunction with a treasure hunt

All in all, the birthday was a great success and much fun was had by all which is the main thing. I am told this morning that there are only 364 sleeps till my babe turns 7. Imagine that. Mummy needs a little time to recover from this birthday bonanza before even contemplating the next

Lots of love

x