A bit of a blur

Wow the past two months have passed in a bit of a blur.

Work is really busy and I have been bringing quite a bit of work home with me which hopefully won't be an recurring theme.  We are launching our new service on 21 October so lots to do before then but hopefully it will get a bit better after that.  I really hope so as at the moment I am only sleeping properly one night in four so am looking very haggard!

When I haven't been working I have been helping Seb with his Year 10 homework which he is suddenly drowning in.  And when we aren't doing homework I am trying to make revision cards for subjects like computing, physics and chemistry which for me is like trying to understand and make notes in a foreign language!

So life isn't exactly a bundle of fun at the moment but I am holding out in the hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Friday was nice though.  It was my dad's birthday so Nat and I made a birthday cake.  First time we have baked in ages.  I've missed it!

Saturday was also good for some 'me time' as while I had my hair done I managed to nearly finish my book club book which is just as well as we are meeting this week.  It has been a really good book this month - 'The Good Father' but I have found it hard to find time to read as by the time I roll into bed at 11.30pm I don't much feel like reading.

We had a family candlelit dinner in the conservatory.  The candles were more a practicality than a romantic addition - plus you lose some of the ambience when you have to play a game of "eat three mouthfuls then you can blow out a candle" repeatedly!

Anyway after dinner David and the boys acted out several sketches from some of their favourite old time comedies - the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy.

Then David, Nat and I went out into the garden in the pitch darkness with two plastic light-up wine glasses.  We just sat on the swing chair half way down the garden and had a lovely snuggle and chat together making disco light patterns on the swing chair canopy.

Summer is well and truly over and it was nice to sit out for one last evening before it gets too cold.

Won't be long now before we are all back in winter coats, hats and gloves.

This morning we went to the new site for our multi-site church to catch up with some friends we haven't seen for a while.  Then this afternoon we are going for a Barbeque with some other very good friends of ours.

Another busy week ahead at work but I also have a referral to the back clinic to try and find out what is causing the trapped nerve feeling in my hip that I have been suffering with since last September!

Have booked flights to go and visit my best friend George at Half term which I am really excited about.  Nice to have something to look forward to after our go live launch on 21 October.  Will be ready for a break and some hang out time with my best buddy.

I am also really looking forward to next weekend.  My cousin Stephen's wedding and seeing all the family again.  Can't wait!!

Baking Cakes and Brighton Pier

A busy morning baking.

First i made a Victoria sponge and a coffee and walnut cake both of which I had offered to bake for my colleague Keith who is retiring this week. 

Then a lemon drizzle cake for my colleague Jules as it is her birthday this week.

An extra lemon drizzle cake for us otherwise David would be disappointed!

Potato and onion soup and an onion tart for lunch with my cousin Chris and her daughter Grace who are visiting Brighton from the North.

Then this afternoon we went into Brighton to go on the Palace Pier.

The kids enjoyed going on the rides.

I couldn't believe it when Seb and Grace went on this hideous looking ride.  Grace didn't seem too sure at first and Nat was very worried when his brother was stuck high in the sky but both kids came off the ride begging for another go - oh to be young and fearless!!

 

They certainly have strong stomachs as between them they managed to polish off chicken noodles, candy floss, sugar ring doughnuts and an ice cream.

It was another beautifully sunny day but when the sun went in just before we came home it suddenly felt quite cold again.

 

Back home I put the fire on to warm us all up and cooked lasagne and garlic bread for our tea.

Fairytale Gingerbread Cottage

On Friday while David was ill in bed, Nathaniel and I started to get into the Christmas spirit.

First we read some Christmas books together.

Then we donned our aprons to start making gingerbread.

Recipe:

180g butter
125g brown sugar
300g golden syrup
500g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
extra flour for rolling.

First we preheated the oven to 150 degrees.

Then we weighed out all our ingredients.

I melted the butter in a large pan over a low heat then added the sugar and syrup.

We placed all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and I poured over  the syrup mix and Nat gave it all a good stir.

We tipped the dough onto a floured surface and kneaded with more flour until it was a thick dough consistency.

We used a gingerbread cottage mould from Lakeland which was much easier to use than messing around with templates and cutting the individual pieces. You just tear off bits of gingerbread and squash them into the mould, pressing them down with your fingers.

Then we popped the moulds onto a large baking tray and baked for approximately 25 minutes until the gingerbread was golden brown.

We left the gingerbread to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes by which time Seb was home from school.

I made up some Royal icing and Seb assisted me in assembling the cottage - quite a fiddly job but with his help we finally managed it.

I then piped around the windows and doors and we decorated the cottage with jelly tots, fruity tooties, dolly mixtures and snowies for roof tiles.

With the left over royal icing Nat decorated our Christmas cake.

It was a lovely day followed by my book club meal at the Little Bay restaurant on the seafront in Brighton. Unfortunately David was still not feeling well enough to join me so I caught the bus by myself.

It was so windy that as I walked down West Street my new birthday umbrella (a gift from David) blew inside out and the spokes all bent and came apart from the material so i had to abandon it and run the rest of the way to the Little Bay.

It is a wonderful little place laid out like the inside of a theatre with the tables all in private boxes  / booths with red theatre curtains and gold candelabra everywhere.  There is live opera singing on Wednesday to Saturday nights which was a really fun and novel touch.  The food was really good value and absolutely delicious. 

When I got home I caught up on the news about the school shooting in Connecticut in America where twenty small children and six teachers were gunned down.  Such an awful and hideous event - those poor families. It is so hard to contemplate or understand what on earth would lead someone to massacre little children like that - and so close to Christmas too.  I think the news will have shocked and appalled people around the world.

 Our children are so precious and it reminds me how important it is to enjoy every possible minute with them as we never know how long we will have with them.

Autumn Leaves

This morning I picked up little P and went, with him and Nat, to my Wednesday morning Mums' Prayer group at Church.

It was lovely to see all my wonderful friends and I took a cake with me as it is my birthday tomorrow! It was just a victoria sponge sandwiched together with homemade strawberry and vanilla jam and piped with vanilla butter icing. Fortunately there was enough left over for David and the boys to have a slice later!

After dropping little P back home, Nat and I stopped to collect some Autumn leaves.

Back home we had a quick bite to eat and I started sticking several sheets of paper together to make one large piece for today's kids craft project.

While I was busy sticking, my mother-in-law Hazel turned up with my birthday present which was a really nice surprise.  She had a cup of tea and a slice of cake and we had a very pleasant chat while I opened my lovely presents.

First was a really pretty and unusal book holder in the style of a deck chair.  This can be used for books or kindles but I think will be particularly useful for my recipe books while I am cooking.

I also was given a  beautiful black beaded wrap - a little bit of sparkle!  Now I want David to take me somewhere nice so I can have an excuse to wear it!

Finally a much needed pot of Passionfruit scented Body Butter which smells delicious!

Later Nat and I continued with our craft project and we painted a tree with branches onto the large piece of paper. 

 

Nat was keen to do some hand painting so we added some handprint leaves.

Next I had to get Nat to eat a yoghurt so we could use the pot for some glue.

 

Then back to work and Nat glued on the real leaves that he had collected.

And this is the finished picture which is now hanging on our conservatory wall! 

Just in time for Seb coming home from school.  I prepared him a bowl of fruit for a snack and we caught up on his day. 

 

Then he showed me a really great website that he has used at school.  It is called Fast Tomato and it is a careers advice website.

http://www.fasttomato.com/public/login

 You log on for free and then answer some questions about your preferences and also what level of qualifications you think you will achieve.  Then it provides you with a list of career options which it thinks you are suited for.  You can find out more about the different roles it suggests including what qualifications you need and what subjects would be good to choose at GCSE, A-Level or Degree level.  If you then click on your profile and then summary it explains about your working preferences and what kind of things you are likely to like or dislike in a job.

I thought it was fantastically accurate.  it came up with suggestions of Website Designer, Fashion Designer, photographer, Cameraman or CAD Engineer (Computer Aided Design) for Seb which are all things I would think he would be great at.

I was so impressed I even made an account for myself and Seb and I tried the questions out on me to see what careers it recommended for me.  I learned that I prefer a role involving lots of writing and also one in which I get to tell other people what to do or to persuade them around to my way of thinking!  The careers it recommended for me were barrister or advocate, teacher, social worker or Human Resources Manager (which is what I am!)

While Seb did his homework I cleaned the paint and glue off the conservatory floor before starting dinner and icing the other cake that I have made to take to work tomorrow!  This one is a chocolate cake, hope it turns out as well as the Victoria sponge - that was yummy!

After dinner we tried the fast Tomato website out on David and again a really accurate outcome as among his career options was Bank or building society Manager!!

Boys are both in bed, just time for a glass of wine and a relax before bedtime!

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake Recipe

To serve 8

Ingredients (for the cake):
250g self raising flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
pinch salt
250g Light Muscovado sugar
200 ml sunflower oil
300g carrots peeled and grated
zest and juice of half a lemon
75g pistaccio nuts (or walnuts), roughly chopped
3 eggs

Ingredients for the Frosting:
200g full fat cream cheese
50g butter
grated zest and juice of one lemon
300g icing sugar sifted
25g pistaccio nuts or walnuts roughly chopped (to decorate)

Method:
1.   Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees (160 for a fan oven)
2.  Grease a 20cm cake tin or tray and line with baking parchment
3.   Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt and spices
4.   With an electric hand whisk, beat the oil and sugar together in a separate bowl until well creamed
5.   separate the eggs
6.  add the egg yolks to the oil and sugar and mix well
7.  Add the grated carrot to the mixture then the lemon zest, juice and the nuts
8.  Fold in the flour
9.  Beat the egg whites until light and stiff then fold into the cake mixture with a rubber spatula
10.  pour the cake mix into the prepared cake tin.  Cook on a low shelf for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean

If you have any excess cake mixture divide it between muffin cases and pop in the oven with the large cake to bake but remove the muffins after 15-20 minutes.

 While the cake is cooking combine the ingredients for the frosting until smooth and creamy, cover and place in the fridge to chill

When the cake is baked remove from the oven and stand on a wire cake rack for 5 minutes

Remove the cake from the tin and leave on the wire rack until completely cool

Spread the frosting over the cake and sprinkle with the chopped nuts

If not serving immediately keep refrigerated in a tupperware container for up to 4 days.

Tasty Tuesday

After a day at work, an afternoon spent  . . .

Baking Leek and Bacon Quiche with Seb (recipe posted)

and Lemon Curd Tarts with Nat

I Love baking with my boys

I Love eating the results too . . .