Red Onion and Asparagus Tart

With the need to start tracking my weight again this weekend I made a delicious Red Onion and Asparagus Tart with ricotta.  My photo really doesn't do it justice.  It was probably the best tart I have ever made.

I took the recipe from a book a brought a few years back.  I went through a phase of buying cheap cookery books from the works.   We had it for lunch with a green salad.  A portion is 6 pro points but it felt like a lot more.

Amazon.

ABC biscuits.

When I was on Pinterest the other day I came across these really cool scrabble cookies courtesy of When Adobo Met Feijoada.

Image: When Adobo Met Feijoada

Ever since I saw them I have been itching to make some.  Here is my attempt.  I think I need to get a thicker pen.  I made mine a bit bigger as Mimi is a bit too small for scrabble.  

For my biscuits and icing I used a recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Cookies and Biscuits book.  If you would like to make these then When Adobo Met Feijoada have got an excellent tutorial with step by step instructions.  I think I need to work on my icing skills!!!!! I think that these would make a great treat for Mimi's packed lunch.

Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Last night we had a few of our friends round for dinner and I really fancied the idea of making a Chocolate Fudge Cake.  I have tried making them before but I can never get them as moist as the ones you buy in the shops.  For a while I have been following The Crazy Kitchen.  It is a great source of ideas and inspiration for cooking with toddlers.  Yesterday I on The Crazy Kitchen I found the most amazing looking chocolate fudge cake.  It looked so delicious I just had to try it.  I was also intrigued as the cake mixture used Greek yoghurt (one of my favourite foods) and bicarb of soda.

We got lovely and messy.  Mimi wasn't interested in baking yesterday until she heard the mixer going and saw all the chocolate!  She said it tasted fizzy, it must have been the combination of the yoghurt and the bicarb.

Recipe: The Crazy Kitchen

Here is our end result.  I was a bit worried when I added my frosting as it seemed really greasy (I am not sure if it was supposed to be like that) but once it started to set it disappeared and left you with a super scrummy topping.  Not only that but it was super easy to make.  Some recipes are so complex and confusing that you feel like a failure before you have even begun.
With the idea of it being served up at dinner I decided to decorate it with mini eggs for Easter.  Then I had a random idea that I could turn the eggs gold by painting them with some gold food colouring I had left over from Christmas.  I was a bit disappointed as they weren't gold gold, but I liked the colour all the same.

Yum Chocolate Fudge Cake and Whipped Cream!

The review on The Crazy Kitchen said 

 "This cake has got to be the best and one of the easiest chocolate cakes I have ever made." 

  

I totally agree, this really was the easiest chocolate fudge cakes I have made and what's more it was deliciously moist.  I will certainly make this again.

Blood Oranges a rare jewel!

Wow, I didn't know you could still get these.  I love Blood Oranges but you rarely see them anywhere.  The little greengrocers in town are selling 4 for a £1.00.  What a bargain!  So much so I brought 8.  I might have to go back tomorrow and buy some more!

Here we go - the first round of winter bugs have arrived.  We came back from Venice two weeks ago to a poorly Mimi, which I caught then Mike caught (obviously this has turned into "man flu"), my Dad caught it then came down with another cold which has since been passed onto us and then last night I had a message from playschool to say that there is a sickness bug doing the rounds.  Great!!!  It is always at this time of the year that I develop the wonder lust - I was definitely designed for warmer sunnier climes.

Ooo if only I could go back in time! - Aitutaki Lagoon, Cook Islands
Aitutaki was part of our round the world trip 03-04

I feel washed out at the moment.  Work is stressing me out and I have tonnes to do, the house is a tip, there is washing every where and we all have colds.

I had to take cakes into work the other week because it was my birthday over half term.  I found this trick on pin-interest and decided to try it out.  I was quite pleased with them although the icing was a bit too warm.

Multi-coloured swirls.

I am also considering making Christmas Hampers for some people this year and thought I would have a trial run making a Dundee Cake and some Mince Pies - or as Mimi calls them Wince Pies.  Mince Pies were ok but I think I over cooked the Dundee Cake so its quite dry.  Maybe I should feed it with some Brandy.

However its not all been bad.  Mimi is being very cute - although I wish she would stop licking her chin as she has made it sore with a nasty sore rash.  If you had asked me yesterday it may have been a different story.  The potty training seems to be regressing.  She keeps hiding and doing number two's in her knickers.  This happened yesterday, I am trying to stay calm about it as I don't want it to become an issue which manifests itself into something more than it is.  However I struggled to keep it together yesterday and burst into tears.  I stood her up and pulled down her knickers but she decided she wanted to sit down so slid down me and landed on the floor, you can imagine the rest!  Her response was "don't worry, your daddy will be her soon"  "daddy will make it better".  Hence we all needed clean clothes.

She does not like going to playschool, she is like an octopus that clings to you and has to be peeled off however she comes out 3 hours later with a huge grin on her face, covered in paint, a fist full of paintings and proceeds to tell you what a nice time she has had.  I was sitting with her at lunch time today when she said to me "I was a naughty girl at playschool".  I asked her what she had done and apparently she had been told off for standing on her chair at lunch time. 

The other day I met a very old friend of mine and her little girl at the Ashford Outlet Centre for a couple of hours.  The two girls are so cute together, however because we meet their quite often and we both like a bargain both of the girls were dressed in almost identical clothes.  This time they got matching boots from Clarks.

Mimi & her little friend with their matching coats & umbrellas.

Yesterday morning we were going to take Mimi on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Miniature Railway but its not running at the moment so instead we took her to Dover Castle.  The weather was beautiful.  It was lovely and warm and virtually no wind at all so we were able to go right to the top of the Great Tower without being blown away.

Mimi on the little land train which takes you around the Castle's grounds

Mimi decided to tell everyone very loudly on the train that Mummy & Daddy had both been to the toilet.  She then proceeded to tell them that she wasn't having a very nice time.  When I asked her if she wanted to go back another day she said No.

What has everyone else been up to?  Weather was great again today.  Mike went sailing first thing this morning then this afternoon we took a walk around the field.  Mimi (I wish I had taken a photo) decided that she would wear her bike helmet the wrong way round for the entirety of the walk.  Crazy baby!!!  I did try and remove it but she became fairly hysterical about it so we left her!

Kids say the funniest things...

Yesterday morning Mimi tried to bite me.  At first I thought she wanted to give me a kiss or a lick but I was horrified when she sank her teeth in.  This is the first time she has done this.   So following all the usual tips from Joe Frost Mimi spent the next two minutes sitting or in her case screaming on the naughty mat. When her time was up I went and asked her to tell me what she had done wrong and why she had been made to sit on the naughty mat to which she replied all the correct answers.  I then said to her what mustn't you do and she replied "No Eating Mummy."  How I laughed.

Mimi is such a skinny mini that the new skirt I brought her from Gap didn't fit her and kept falling down.  This is happens a lot with trousers and skirts especially Monsoon ones.  I really wish all baby clothes came with  adjustable elastic waistbands.  So I had to carefully un-pick the waistband seam, pull the elastic a bit tighter (I cut off about 2 inches of elastic) then stitch it all back together.  It worked however it bunched the material up a bit too much on the waistband and made poor Mimi look like she has the biggest set of hips and bottom.  But hey she was happy with her new princess skirt and she is too young to worry about things like that.

Then we had a bit of a baking session.  We started out making pastry for a chicken pie and we kinda got a bit carried away.  First up we made some Cheese Stars.

Then we made some jam tarts

Eventually we made our chicken pie.  Which was delicious.  It was a bit of a mummy special - (I made it up as we went along!)  I meant to take a picture before it was cut up but totally forgot.

Having been stuck indoors for a few days I decided to take Mimi out for a couple of hours.  We popped over to Mama Feelgoods.  We had a lovely lunch and visited the amazing cake craft shop they have.  They have everything you could ever wish for when it comes to cake decorating.  We brought some lovely pink cake cases with flowers on and some purple glitter for the tops.  Now we just need to make them!!!  Maybe tomorrow?!?

Check out these great looking sandwiches we had a Mama Feelgoods.  Mimi had a Jam Sandwich and I had a toasted Brie and Bacon YUM YUM!

Last night I finished my latest book.  "Caught" Harlan Coben.  I brought this book ages ago but I found it so difficult to read in bed with my old glasses that it kind of got put to one side.  When I got my new glasses a few weeks back I picked it up again.  I would highly recommend this book.   It is a tremendous book with several story lines which all link together to keep you guessing right up until the end.  Basically a 17 year old girl goes missing for 3 months and the whole community imagines the worst.  A local reporter gets caught up in the twists when she embarks on her mission to bring down sexual predators via a televised sting operation.  

Does anyone remember the program on channel 4 a few years back called "The Book Group"?  I think I am talking 2002-03.  Anyway it was a great program which used to be on after "Teachers" (another great program).  It was about a random selection of people who got together on a regular basis to review a selection of books,  I used to watch it with my old flat mates, we thought it was great.  Check it out on you tube.  A few years ago after returning home having lived in London for a few years I thought it would be a good idea to set up a book club locally.  Nothing too serious somewhere to meet have a few glasses of wine and maybe discuss a book or two.  Trouble was no one was interested.  I did try a few on-line book clubs but they all took it far too seriously.  It was expected that you would try and read a zillion books a week.  I suppose it was one of those things.  Anyway - what to read next?   

Today I finally got round to making some cakes to take to my sisters tomorrow.  Check out the pink cases and purple glitter!!!

We have had a bit of a weird week.  I managed to work myself up in to a bit of a frenzy over work, which as usual turned out to be nothing much.

Mimi does not seem to like playschool and poor Mike is having to leave her in tears.  I think it must be a phase she is going through as she did the same with me when I left her with my Dad in the week.

As usual it poured with rain on Tuesday evening for my bus duty.  I don't think it is boding well for the year as I have done two so far and both days it has rained!

However Wednesday the weather improved and we had a lovely couple of days at home.  We made cakes (and a huge mess). 

The end result.  Don't they look great.

Then we took our lunch down to the beach for a picnic.  I hope that there are some more days like this before Winter arrives.  The sea was beautifully calm and the sun was shinning.  

We also managed to get over to see J & H and his gorgeous new sister G.  She is just so cute.

We had some friends over for dinner on Friday night.  I was really excited as I had decided to cook a Green Thai Curry which I knew they like and is also one of my favourite meals.  Unfortunately I had a bit of a dippy moment and didn't bother weighing out the curry paste.  I guestimated and used about 3 times the amount of required paste.  Hence as you can imagine the lovely curry that I had so wanted was edible but only just.  I would like to blame my mad moment on too much alcohol but that wasn't the case.   

Additionally I think I must be getting old.  I think I have been in denial that I am still in my youth when actually I am in my 30's.  I honestly didn't drink very much, but boy I felt rough yesterday.

Check out the clouds this morning when we got up at 6.30am!  Aren't they just amazing.  We don't often see clouds this big.  We looked it up on the met office website and it was miles away.  Well over Ostend. 

Daddy just made pancakes for Mimi's breakfast - this is always a preferred choice given a chance.  However I am not sure Mike washed the pan out properly before cooking them as they had taken on a distinctive curry flavour.  Poor baby!

Rain Rain Go Away!

With the end of the summer holidays nearing the end there is a definite chill to the air.  I would prefer not to have been woken up this early but when I got up at 6.30 this morning it was only 12 degrees outside.

There are lots of positives about being a teacher but I am starting to come to the conclusion that the holidays are too long as I have almost managed to convince myself that I no longer work.  However unfortunately this is not the case and it is now dawning on me that on Tuesday I will have to walk back through the school gates!

The weather has been pretty shocking over the last couple of days.  One minute it is raining cats and dogs and freezing and the next its brilliant sunshine and you are sweltering under your fleece.

This is exactly what happened on Thursday when I took Mimi to Dover.  We went to see if there were any baby joules clothes on sale at De Bradelei Wharf.  Mike had gone the day before and said that there were loads.  However I am not sure what he was looking at because we couldn't find much.  It was all for children about 3 years older than Mimi.

By the time we came out of De Bradelei Wharf it was seriously warm and the sun was shining.  So we decided to go for a walk along the promenade.  Mimi insisted on pushing Mr Doggy in the buggy.  She was really cute, we had to stop every few mins to check that he was ok.

If you look carefully in the photos you can just about see Dover Castle on top of the hill.

It was so bright I could hardly see anything.  When we set off from home it was dull so I hadn't bothered with my sunglasses.

Mimi made a horrible mess with her ice cream and we were chased by a swarm of wasps that were in her hair and sitting on her hands.  A swarm might be a slight exaggeration but there were at least 5 or more.  In the end I had to literally throw her in the buggy and run with her to get away from them.

Then Friday evening my mum came to babysit for Mimi and we went down to see some friends for the most amazing supper.  Slow roasted belly pork.  It was seriously delicious.  When people talk about Belly Pork it always brings back horrid memories of the pork my mum use to do.  But this has made me a convert and I am off to try a belly pork recipe I found in this months Women & Home Feel Good Food.

On Friday I came across pininterest.  I have heard people talking about it on other blogs but I finally got the gist of it on Friday and I have to say I have become quite addicted with it ever since.  I have come across some great people, new blogs and great ideas for both, home and school.   One of the best ideas I have come across in ages is this organisation system.  So simple yet so effective.  I am definitely going to be using this from now on.

Check it out on Jen & Jakes Blog.

After a lovely evening and not too much alcohol we set off early for a trip to Canterbury as I had my hair cut at 8.30am.  I go to this really cute hairdressers called the Chair.  As I have really curly hair in the past I have really struggled to find someone who can cut my hair well and this is the first place I have been where they know how to deal with it.  Then I had my eyes tested at Vision Express (they had sent me a free voucher plus £50 off).  I have really noticed that when I am tiered I struggle with my vision and have to squint lots.  I find it difficult to read in bed and after a while on the computer I notice it.  Anyway the upshot is that my eyes are ok, but they are just on the edge.  So  I decided that I would get a pair.  However they first pointed me towards these great glasses but at £395 a pair not including the lenses, I thought that they were having a laugh.  Eventually I did find a pair that were considerably cheaper and with my free eye test voucher and £50 off they seemed much more reasonable.

Final choice.  Very similar to the Tiffany ones but at a third of the price!

After a few other errands we were home by 11.30 which in Mikes book is a good shopping trip!  Mike was supposed to go on a sailing expedition with the sailing club but just as he left to go to the club a huge thunderstorm came through with squalling winds.  Hence he didn't go and was then under my feet for the afternoon.  Had I known I would have gone to Canterbury on my own.

In the afternoon I made a jacket for my note book.  I have been struggling to find a good note book for the start of the new year.  

Then last night in an effort to be more economical and waste less (we had some left over Gammon in the fridge) I made a Ham, Peas and Cream Pasta for dinner.  It was a slight adaptation on the recipe I found in The Geometry of Pasta book.

Now on a very different note I have just been to the toilet to find a "WHOLE" toilet roll stuck down there!  I wonder who did that?

Where has the summer gone?

Yesterday we woke up to shining sun and a beautiful clear blue sky.  Having checked the weather forecast I decided that Monday was the day to spend in the garden catching up with my weeding and potting the fab terracotta planters Mike managed to pick up on ebay.  A steal at £10 for the three.

Unfortunately things didn't go to plan.  We set off early to Tesco & B&Q to pick up a few bits a bag of compost and some plants.  When we went into Tesco the sun was still shining by the time we came out 20mins later the sun had all but disappeared.  By the time we got home it was raining.  Our plants are still sitting on the table outside well watered and waiting to be planted.

So instead of spending time in the garden Mimi helped me with some baking.  We made a great Coffee & Walnut Cake using the Nigel Slater recipe I found on the internet.

We haven't faired much better with the weather today either.  We had originally planned to go into London with Mike.  Mike had a meeting and we were going to meet him afterwards.  I really want to take Mimi on a train as she hasn't been on one before.  I also want to go and see the Miro exhibition at the Tate Modern before it finishes in September.  The Miro exhibition is the first one in the UK for 50 years. 

                                       

Needless to say having looked at the torrential rain that was forecast and the fact that I would have a toddler and a buggy in London I decided we would try and go another day and instead we went to Bluewater with Kate.  We didn't buy very much and the journey was pretty horrid with all of the spray on the road.  I did however managed to get some concealer and an eye liner from Space NK.  I really like Space NK but our nearest store outside of London is Bluewater.  I know you can order online, but unless you know exactly what you want it is difficult to see the correct colours on a computer.

1. Terry Touch-Expert Advanced Multi-Corrective Concealer Brush
2. Laura Mercier Tightline Cake Eye Liner 

Mimi had fun jumping around in Hobbs.  I am not sure that I will be taking her to Bluewater again any-time soon. 

We had a lovely lunch at Leon.

We had the Chicken Curry, Falafel Lunch Box and Hummus and Flat Bread.  I was introduced by one of my really good friends from work and it quickly became one of my favourite places to eat.  They have also produced the most amazing cookbook.  Not only does it have some great in-store recipes but it is beautifully designed.

Finally we have Mimi modelling her new "Cat" PJ's from John Lewis.

Now for something I meant to show you the other day but totally forgot.  Check out these wild Poppies I found on the beach at the weekend.