Nelson's Story

In February 2009 we bought Nelson, Andrew's parents gave us some money for it as a wedding present (v.lucky huh!) and we added a little of our own, this is what we came up with, a 2003 Vauxhall Corsa, diesel, 4 doors with reasonably low mileage.

We got our first car Maggie when we first moved to Scotland in 2005.  We lived up in the Highlands, in a village called Strathcarron.  It took us an hour to get to the nearest supermarket, so it was very obvious that we needed to get a car straight away.  Our friends Liz and Martin hooked us up and for £450 we became the proud owners of Maggie May. 

BTW, how young/thin do we look? 

The car was called Maggie because she was a Scottish car, named after the Rod Stewart song, Maggie May,  because "The morning sun when it's in your eyes really shows your age, but that don't worry me none, in my eyes you're everything"  Maggie, was to be honest, a little past her prime but she was brilliant, got us everywhere we needed to go.  Once we moved to London it became obvious we didn't need her any more.  Maggie went to the scrap yard, it was a sad sad day (a few tears were shed even), and for the next three years we went on feet, tube, bike, bus and (after a night on the town) taxi.  In 2008 Andrew transferred to a new work site 25 miles out of town and it was obvious we needed wheels.   Enter Nelson...

Nelson is an ex-armed forces car and is named after Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson (which is even more appropriate now he's been wounded in battle a couple of times!). We took him all around Ireland, doing about 200 miles a day, finishing a complete loop around the outside of the island, packed to the brim with all our camping gear. 2009 was a good year for Nelson...

2010 wasn't so good...We'd never had RAC (AA) cover before, and when we were offered it for free with our car insurance it seemed like a good idea (if a little un-necessary). How wrong were we...Our first call out was in May to change a tyre (Andrew "parked" a little too close to a kerb and put a hole in it-it was about the size of a 50p piece)

In July, on the last day of school, the engine blew up at 70mph on the M4...luckily for me I wasn't driving. After coasting to a stop we called the RAC again, and sat down on the hard shoulder to wait for them to arrive. Even though it was 5pm and the motorway was packed with peak hour/school holiday traffic, I managed to fall asleep while we waited for a tow!  In my defence, I was three months pregnant with Chicken!

After a full heart transplant (AKA a new engine) we got Nelson back 3 months later, more or less a whole new car...

Unfortunately that's not quite the end of the story...At 7 months pregnant (and getting a bit big for riding the tube in the morning) I'd driven Nelson to school, and came out that evening to find the battery flat and nothing happening when I turned the key. Enter the RAC again, Nelson was loaded on the back of a truck and dragged home. Turns out the alternator had died, but once the (very helpful) man from the RAC had recommended a cheap garage, we were back on the road 24 hours later!

Most recently (and hopefully finally!) Chicken and I were on the way to my favourite Scrapbooking shop when the clutch gave up the ghost as I came off the motorway 25 miles from home. After a fair bit of panicking and another call to the RAC, when they heard I had a "baby on board" they bumped me to the top of the list and were there fixing the problem in about 45 minutes. Not long after that I was on my way home-having decided to give the scrapbooking a miss for the afternoon!

Unfortunately, on the way home I had to stop to pick up Andrew from Sainsbury's, and in the car park on the way out the same thing happened again. It's fixed now, all it was was a clip that kept coming off a pipe!

So there you are, six call outs from the AA in twelve months, I think we've had our moneys worth!

And finally, check out all that snow from December, Andrew drove to work on Monday and didn't feel the speed bumps at all!

Friday Five - Simple Suppers (on a Sunday)

Hey there, another Friday Five on a Sunday, I do genuinely have an excuse, a 10lb bundle of screaming joy! Not only has Chicken gotten a cold and mastered the smile this week she has learnt to roll from her back on to her side, we'll have to watch her more closely on the change table!  The other new skill she has learnt is prolonged crying at night, not colic at 5ish but when we are trying to put her to bed, any time between 7pm and 11pm.  And it seems to last for an hour or so, hard on our eardrums, the neighbours, my blogging and of course her.  To help this, we are starting to introduce a night time routine, bath, massage, feed, cuddle, sleep, mum and dad time!  Two nights in and the score is Chicken 2- parents 0, but hey ho we will persevere.  I think she's getting enough sleep, its just not when we want it!  I'm going to buy a baby monitor this week so that she can sleep upstairs without being disturbed, currently we are putting her basket in the darkened hallway, but it seems there is too much action there!

Anyway back to the topic at hand, simple suppers, another Friday Five from Kat.  For us a simple supper is what you make on a week night when you come home and are really hungry and need food in a hurry/can't be bothered cooking/there isn't that much 'exciting' food in the cupboard/doesn't have a recipe, is just made.

1. Meat, bag salad and carbs (cous cous, wedges, boiled new potatoes etc)
This is my favourite summer meal, especially when you barbecue the meat, grab a bag of salad leaves and cook your carbs.  Total cooking time: 20 minutes.  If I'm feeling snazzy I'll have corn on the cob instead of potatoes, or have both!

2. Spaghetti bolognese.
For years I didn't like spag bol, I blame Bryant Hall, my hall of residence at uni.  While most of their food was good, the spag bol was dire!  I like spaghetti and meatballs, but making meatballs takes that little bit longer.  Slowly Andrew introduced spag bol into our dining repertoire and made a few changes for me - fusspot that I am.  Firstly the onion - its got to be cut up very small, I like the flavours onions add to a dish, but I don't like the texture, slimy yet crunchy, blergh!  Secondly, you have to use cans of whole peeled tomatoes.  I also have a 'thing' about tomatoes, like them cooked, but raw, well they are the only food I think I'd refuse point blank to eat, nuff said.  Cans of whole peeled tomatoes are better than chopped tomatoes because they've left the skin off, obvious really!  Now it has to be said, spag bol is one of my favourite week night meals!

3.  Sausage and mash.
Living in England means that we get to choose from a huge variety of sausages, and man there are some good ones out there!  My current favourite is a plain pork version that we buy at our local farmers market.  The market is only on once a month which means we have to stock up and freeze them.  For mash, I like a fluffy, lump free mash with grain mustard stirred in for a bit of extra flavour.  The gravy is the ultimate simple supper, straight from a packet!

4.  Chicken drumsticks/thighs, and wedges/chips and salad.
We flavour the chicken in a couple of different ways, for example sprinkle with chicken stock (thanks Ange for the idea), or honey and soy or honey and mustard and bung it in the oven with chips or wedges.  If we're feeling particularly perky, they'll be home made, otherwise Aunt Bessie comes to the rescue!  Add bag of salad and voila!

5.  Pizza (from a box)
This is the ultimate in simple suppers and to be honest we don't have it that often, but occasionally (on a Thursday it seems) we're just too tired/disorganised to cook.  My favourite pizzas have ham/pineapple/olives on them while Andrew prefers peperoni/chillies/onions/peppers.  It can make choosing difficult, which is why we usually get two small ones from the supermarket (thin base of course) and bung them in the oven when we get home, and ten minutes later dinner is served!

So there you go, our 5 Simple suppers, enjoy!

Jamie's 30 Minute Meals

Andrew's parents gave me some money to get a birthday present this year.  With Chicken's due date the day before my birthday I didn't get round to choosing anything until Mum came to visit.  I decided to get a cook book because, well you can never have too many cook books can you? 

I chose Jamie's 30 Minute Meals because I'd seen the TV show which looked good, and because we really like his other books.  We've got Jamie at Home and Cook with Jamie and use them both regularly.  He's also really funny on TV, and his recipes are inventive yet easy to make. 

Mum also decided to get the book and we've decided to see how many of them we could cook, a challenge if you will!  We thought about cooking the same meals each week, but as Mum pointed out we're in different seasons which makes cooking with seasonal ingredients harder (not that that really matters in the UK, you can buy any type of fruit and veg all year round).

Andrew and I have done two meals so far, on Saturday I cooked Mustard chicken, dauphinoise potatoes, greens and black forest affogato.  I made a few changes and left out the Swiss chard and used espresso in the affogato. While it didn't take 30 minutes (more like an hour) I did enjoy the meal.

Tonight Andrew made Pork chops and crispy crackling, crushed potatoes, minty cabbage, peaches and custard. We only had pork loins so left out the cracking, and I swapped the shortbread biscuits for ginger biscuits, but otherwise stuck to the recipe.  This time it was a 45 minute meal, we're getting quicker!

Now it has to be said while that the presentation in all these meals isn't the best, they are really tasty and full of flavour.  I've eaten veg I usually avoid like spinach and cabbage, and added more flavour to meals than I normally would, the fennel seeds on the pork tonight was tasty!.  All in all, I'd say these are great week day recipes and a good way to get people (me) trying new things.  No more carrots, green trees, and white trees as my three veg for a while!

Rhubarb, vanilla and sour cream crumb cake

I buy Delicious Magazine every month and really enjoy flicking through the pages, even if I don't make many of the recipes!  The cover recipe really caught my eye, it was a tasty looking rhubarb cake and inside there was a whole selection of rhubarb recipes.  I love rhubarb, and had real trouble choosing which one to make, pie, cake or cheesecake?  In the end I went with the cake, but I think the cheesecake will be next (and soon!)

I was supposed to be going to have lunch with the girls from my ante-natal class today, and had decided to make the cake to celebrate the fact that all eight of us finally joined the mum club.  Sadly, because of Chicken's snuffles, we couldn't go (didn't want to infect the other babies), but since I'd already made the cake I thought I'd share it with you.  I made a few changes to the original recipe, using rice flour and gluten free baking powder because of of the girls can't eat wheat.   Final verdict, it tasted great!

Gluten Free Rhubarb, Vanilla and Sour Cream Crumb Cake

225g trimmed rhubarb
50g caster sugar
2tsp rice flour

For the cake:
6tbsp sour cream
1 large egg plus one egg yolk
1tsp vanilla bean paste
100g rice flour
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
75g unsalted butter, at room temp
50g ground almonds

For the crumbs:
50g unsalted butter
25g light brown sugar
40g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
100g rice flour
pinch of salt

1.  For the crumbs, melt the butter (stove or microwave) add both types of sugar and stir constantly until dissolved into a smooth, toffee like paste.  Stir in the vanilla paste, then the flour and salt to make a biscuit-like dough.  Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the bowl and set aside to cool.
2.  Pre-heat the oven to 180c and grease and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking paper. 
3.  Cut the rhubarb into 1in pieces and put in a mixing bowl.  Add the sugar and flour and mix till the rhubarb is thoroughly coated.  Set aside for 15mins or so, stirring occasionally so that the dry ingredients sticks to the fruit.  Set aside.
4.  For the cake, mix the sour cream, egg, yolk, and vanilla in a small bowl.  Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into another bowl.  Add the butter and mix using a electric mixer until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.  Stir in the mixed almonds and gradually beat in the wet ingredients until smooth.
5.  Spread the cake mixture into the base of the tin and scatter over the rhubarb mixture.  Break the crumbs into small pieces and scatter over the cake.
6.  Bake for 40-45 mins until golden and a skewer comes away clean when inserted into the cake.  NB if the skewer hits a piece of rhubarb it will still be moist.
7.  Dust with icing sugar and serve either warm or cool.

A sick chicken

On Saturday night Chicken slept quite badly, I think I managed 6 hours sleep if thats any indication.  She usually gets a little more than that, as I want to make sure that she is fully asleep before I nod off after feeding her.  Anyway, she woke up on Sunday with a serious case of the snots and sounded like a Snuffleupagus.  But, besides the snuffles she was fine, no temperature, just tired, a common cold.  I guess thats what happens when you live in the UK, you get a cold at 7 weeks old. 

She slept most of Sunday, not even making a peep when we went out to lunch with L&P in her dungarees (BTW, I'm loving the shoes!)  Before bed we turned the shower on full heat and shut the door to the bathroom, and five minutes later we had a sauna to help decongest her nose (apparently children don't learn to blow their own nose til they are around four!).  We also Vicksed her chest and like my Nana used to with me when I was sick, also her feet.  Because we didn't get much sleep the night before, it was to bed early, and I think we were up only three times, which is pretty good for her. 

The Snuffleupagus impersonations continued this morning and a worried mum called the Doctors surgery for an apppointment.  We saw a nurse practioner, she was lovely, and reassured me that I'd done the right thing by coming in.  She checked her chest and all was clear, and said to continue with the 'saunas' and the Vicks, and to come back again if she gets worse. 

We spent the day cuddled up on the sofa, and had a nice nap (both of us!) and just chillaxed.  However, we had an hour this afternoon where she was very perky and enjoyed a play in her bouncer.  To top it off, we got our first real smile!  It was brilliant, I'm not sure that I would be in such a good mood if I had a tonne of snot up my nose!

There you have it, seven weeks old and smiling, what a beautiful girl I have!

Friday Five - Baby things I couldn't live without (on a Sunday)

One of the blogs I follow is called Living like the Kings. Kat is also a new mum and writes about her life.  On Friday she wrote a post about the five baby things she couldn't do without, and suggested others do the same, so here goes.  My Friday Five (on a Sunday)

1. Phil and Teds Explorer

I love this pushchair!  It has to be said, its huge, and is heavy to lift, however, it really suits us!  It can be used from birth to four years old and has an attachment where you can add another seat for a second child.  It also has a coffee cup holder, perfect for those afternoon lattes when in town!

2. Star footmuff

This footmuff is great!  It keeps Chicken warm and snug, and will last for ages.  I love the funky design and it really suits both boys and girls.

3. Grans blanket

My fab mother in law Moira knitted this for Chicken.  I'd seen a similar one in a store and took a picture of it on the iPhone and send it to her.  She got knitting and came up with this wonderful creation.  I really love the colours she chose, it was no mean feat considering she didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl!  Its really soft and warm yet light, and I'm sure Chicken will use it for years to come.

4. Prince Lionheart Slumber Bear Plus

This gadget is great, it reproduces a variety of sounds to soothe a baby.  My favourite is the womb noise, but there is also sea, radio static, and classical music.  It also has a sensor that goes on when someone makes a noise or moves.  The womb noise really calms Chicken and helps her to sleep in her moses basket at night, something we found quite challenging to start with.  We don't actually use the bear, just the sensor which sits at the head of her basket.

5.  My iPhone!

While its not a baby product per se, I couldn't be without it, especially at night when I'm feeding Chicken.  Sitting in the semi dark while I breastfeed is a sure fire way to get me to fall asleep.  Having the iPhone on hand is a great way to ensure I stay awake, and its a good way to catch up on gossip, New Zealand news or find out more about babies.  My personal favourite site however, is Mumsnet, I find its full of great advice by real mums for other mums.  Its also got a 5 mega pixel camera that takes good photos!

I'm sure that my five things I can't live without will change, but for now that's me!

The first

Hi there,
I'm Jess, a Kiwi living outside of London.  My husband Andrew (also a Kiwi) and I have been living in the UK for six (!yes 6!) years now.  In 2005 we came over for an eighteen month 'tour of duty' and well, we've not seen enough of Europe yet!  In that time we also got engaged, married and 6 weeks ago we had our first child Eilidh aka Chicken.

I've been reading various blogs for the last couple of years, cooking, crafting, diaries and many others, and about six months ago Andrew said, well since you read all these blogs, why don't you write your own? And now here we are!  This is my life, my cooking, crafting, ramblings, and anything else inbetween, enjoy!