Pudding time

Yesterday my friend Liz hosted a BBQ at her house.  We met Liz and her husband at our ante-natal classes, and we've been hanging out with the rest of our group on Tuesdays since our babies were born.  Well actually thats not quite true, Liz was hanging out with us before her baby was born, her boy was the last of our group so Liz was our tea and coffee girl while we veged on the couch with very little babies.  Anyway, once again I am off track.  Liz's kitchen flooded before their baby was born and so they spent a long time getting the whole bottom floor of their house dried out and fixed, and to celebrate the 'new' house they held a BBQ.  I asked Liz what pudding aka dessert I could bring and she said I could choose, oh the options!

For those of you who know me, you know I love to bake, actually I love cooking in general, but I love love love to bake.  So I spent this week pouring through my cookbooks, canvasing opinions on FaceBook and generally getting my knickers in a twist because I couldn't decide what to make!  In the end I went with three desserts, two of which I've made before and one that Andrew had.  I would have loved to experiment, but a BBQ with people I don't know is not the time to take risks.

The first pudding I made was Chocolate Guinness cake from Cake Days from the Hummingbird Bakery.  I have both their cookbooks and they are well thumbed, the recipes are very very tasty.  This cake is rich, dark and moist, and most of all ridiculously easy.  I may even post the recipe later on in the week!  The most amazing thing to me about this cake is that it only contains cocoa powder, no chocolate!

 This is the outside, it has a cream cheese icing which is is really yum!  I made this cake for my friend Patrick's 30th a couple of weeks ago and it was also a huge hit then!

I'm sorry but after trying a bajillion times to post this photo the right way up, I give up!

The second dessert was for my friend Jo, who can't eat wheat, so no flour.  I'm really enjoying experimenting with cooking gluten free food for her (well cakes and cookies anyway) so I knew she'd love this Pavlova.  Pav as it is more commonly known in NZ (where it was first created!) is our national pudding and everyone has their version.  Most New Zealander's would put kiwi fruit on top or crumble a flake chocolate bar or slice strawberries.  Not me, I love my pav with raspberries, which is what we had.  Essentially a pavlova is whipped egg whites with sugar added, a meringue cake(ish).

The final dessert was profiteroles, and I have to say, I think they may become my dinner party staple.  So so easy!  Andrew made these for me on Mother's Day, and well if he can make them, I certainly can!  On Friday night I made the choux pastry and piped and baked the 'balls'.  On Saturday I filled them with cream and iced them with a classic chocolate icing.  Mmmmm!

PS  My friends bought me the cake stand as a party of my baby shower presents, not your typical present but very loved!  

 

And now post of mine would be complete without some baby photos, this is Chicken in her party frock.  Unfortunately she wasn't as lady-like as a wearer of such a frock should be.  From stealing her boyfriend's toys to scratching the host of the party on the face she did it all and had a great time, coming home with grass stains all over the feet of her frilly bottom tights.

Friday Five - Things I've been doing instead of blogging

Well its been two weeks now since I last blogged, I just seem to be so busy lately, the older she gets (seven months now) the busier I get!  So I've decided to share some of the more exciting things I've been doing.




1.  Pick your own.  We've been to our local Pick Your Own farm twice to pick raspberries.  Raspberries are my favourite berry and these ones were huge!  Its so much more rewarding (and so much cheaper) to pick them yourself too.  Two good things about picking raspberries are that the canes are mostly at standing height and therefore the berries are easy to pick.  The other thing is that they don't (well these ones anyway) have thorns so no scratches or pricks!

2.  Scrapbooking.  I'm going to try and get my A into G (as my dad would say) and post some of my latest layouts because I'm quite proud of them.  I've scrapped my baby shower, Eilidh's birth story, a picture of our god-daughter Emma at our wedding, us at Andrew's work Christmas party two years ago, and us at the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  At the end of each year I go through all our photos and make a list of the layouts I want to do and then cross them off when done.  I try and make sure I scrap older photos and newer ones, otherwise I'll get behind on the old ones.

3.  Cooking.  I've been cooking meals for Chicken.  I've got a post coming tomorrow or Sunday about her food so I won't go into too much detail, but let it be said, that girl likes to eat!!  This weekend I'm going to make spaghetti bolognese, some sort of chicken dish, more rice pudding and a custard for her.

4.  Hanging out with my baby friends.  Usually the girls from my ante-natal group and I meet every Tuesday, but this week we went back to our tutors house for a pool party (the babies paddled and we held them)  and today we tried to go swimming.  I say tried because we got to the pool and it was shut so we went to an overcrowded playground and sat at an overpriced cafe (and didn't buy anything) and fed the kiddies.  My lovely friend Jo and her adorable son George have been driving us around.  Indecently George is Eilidh's boyfriend, she likes her younger men you see (G is three weeks younger than her).

5.  Saying goodbye to a good friend.  My lovely friend Michelle has left London after living her for nine years.  Michelle and I met at high school 15 years ago when we went on a school trip to Barcelona Spain.  We hung out there and then when we got home to NZ.  Michelle and our other friend Jonelle are some of my oldest friends, and I'm really going to miss her.  Eilidh and I went to Heathrow to wave goodbye as she left to start her new adventure in Hong Kong where she is going to teach in an international school.

So there you go, that's been my last couple of weeks, Eilidh is now in a more reliable sleep pattern in the day so I'm going to try and blog then, fingers crossed it works!

Friday Five - Favourites

I'm sorry I've not blogged this week, again I have been crazy busy, Harry Potter at the cinema, highlights in my hair, pedicure, going to my school's end of term party, watching the Year 6 production, and today I'm packing for a long weekend away at a friends wedding. Who said this stay at home mum business would be at home?? Anyway this weeks Friday five is in response to Kat's questions. Here goes!



1. Favourite cuisine: Italian. Hands down, I loves me some Italian food! Spaghetti alla vongole, risotto, tiramisu, pannacotta, you name it I love it! Oh and don't get me started on a really good thin based pizza with artichokes, olives, pancetta and mozzarella!

Our group, left to right: Me, Andrew, Amy, Delia, Fran, Kay, Dr Mel, Dennis, Paul and in front Graham.


2. Favourite vacation: In NZ and the UK we call a vacation a holiday, but I digress. I think (and this is quite a hard choice because I've been on a lot of holidays, both in Europe and further away!) I've chosen Egypt. We spent two weeks in Egypt with 9 friends over Christmas 2007. It was brilliant, I've seen all the sights, pyramids, tombs, the Nile etc etc, but do you know what the best part was? Two or three days in a town called Siwa which is very remote, only 50km from the Lybian border. We rode bikes, ate great food, relaxed in hot pools in the dessert!! and went sand-boarding down the dunes. Sometimes its nice to get off the beaten track.

Sand-boarding.
3. Favourite hobby: I've got lots of hobbies but my favourite is definitely scrapbooking! I love recording our memories, cutting and pasting and choosing the lovely papers. Some people (Andrew maybe) might say that I've got too much stash, but you can never have too much stash surely?

Andrew and I on a sand dune enjoying the sunset.

4. Favourite Holiday tradition: I've not done this in a while because we've been in the UK for Christmases but I love the $5 present. On Christmas night we have anything from fifteen to thirty plus people at our family camp-site (it is summer in NZ remember) and that is far too many presents to buy! Each person buys one present worth $5 that fits the theme set by my mum (she's the youngest of seven and the unofficial boss) last year it was bottles. All the presents get put in the middle and the first person in the circle chooses one and opens it in front of everybody. The second person looks at that first present (still following me??) and has to decide, do I want that present or a new one? If they take the first present, the first person goes back and takes another present and opens that, and then its the third person's turn, and so on. It gets quite hilarious because some presents (one year it was some naughty dice) get hotly fought over and someone always ends up with the duds!

Waiting to go on our bike ride.

5. Favourite “the-baby’s-asleep-the-chores-are-done-now-what-shall-I-do” pastime: Drinking wine. Lounging on the couch, watching some TV and (not often enough) blogging. It’s my way to unwind. Confession, I mostly read blogs, and need to write more, but thanks to Kat for the answer to number five.

Fran on the main street of Siwa
PS the photos are from our visit to Siwa!

Friday Five - Tips for flying with a baby

Today I am typing with a sick Chicken on my lap, so no photos sorry, my laptop got too full and now all the photos are on the external hard drive which is too hard to hook up, excuses I know! 

Anyway, in late April Chicken and I travelled to New Zealand for a three week visit.  That's four, eleven/twelve hour flights on large planes and two short (one hour) flights on much smaller planes.  Also, two days after we got back, we went on a family holiday to Italy which involved two short flights and one airport delay.  These eight flights, (six of which Chicken and I did by ourselves) have given me quite a lot of experience, and so here are my five tips for flying with a baby.

1.  Try and fly in super quiet times.  Chicken and I left London on Easter Sunday and our flight was very empty. This meant I got three spare seats (yes, very spoilt I know) on the way to NZ and one on the way back.  This was a godsend!  It meant that I could leave our bag of tricks (nappies, toys, spare clothes etc) out to get at whenever I needed it, which was lots!

2.  Make friends with the flight attendants.  As soon as I got on the plane Chicken and I said hello to all the flight attendants, thankfully she is a smiley baby, which made them smile back at her!  This meant that they were all very obliging, helping out whenever I needed them.  One lady, Ngaire was amazing, she held Chicken when I needed to go to the loo, came and checked on us regularly and even directed us to domestic check-in when I saw her in the terminal.  Without these lovely people our flights would have been much much harder!

3.  Pre-order food for collection.  Because I was only breastfeeding Chicken when we flew meant that this didn't apply but now since she is eating food (or if I was feeding her formula) I would definitely make an on-line order at Boots (UK Chemist) and arrange a pick-up at one of the air-side stores.  This means you don't have to open all the food and formula when going through security.  It also means that you don't have to pack as much, and have more space for other stuff, nappies, clothes etc.

4. Take a variety of new toys.  Even though Chicken was only four months old I still took two new toys for her to play with.  I chose ones that were fun but didn't make any noise, because a) I didn't want to make other passengers cross, and b) I don't like toys that make noise (grinchy mum huh?)

5.  Make sure you have all your documents in one easy access place.  I have a travel wallet and in it were our passports, tickets, my marriage license, our visa letters for the US, and a letter from Andrew approving our travel.  The reason I had a letter from Andrew was that Eilidh and I travel on different passports.  I am a New Zealander and while Eilidh will one day be one too, she currently is classed as a British Citizen.  We also have different surnames, which could have aroused suspicion.  Thankfully it didn't but having that letter made me feel much better.  I carried my travel wallet in the front of my rucksack, where I could pull it out quickly whenever it was needed.

6.  Oh I'm cheating I know, but my final tip is, have fun and go with the flow.  Babies are incredibly resilient and can cope with almost anything, its just us adults that have trouble!

Spring holidays - the highlights reel NZ version

Hi everybody, (yes thats you Mum)
Sorry I've been away for so long, as I explained I went home to NZ for three weeks and then we went to Italy for a ten day holiday in Tuscany with the inlaws.  I've had a great time and over the next week or so I'll post in more detail about what we did, but for now, here are the highlights from NZ.

Spending time with Nana and Pops.  It was so great to introduce Chicken to her Pops, and for her to catch up with her Nana, and she totally remembered her too!

Catching up with old friends.  Jonelle and I have been friends for fifteen years now and she had her second baby a week after Chicken (they were due on the same day incidentally)  Good times.

Catching up with family.  Nic is my cousin who lives in my hometown with her husband and two boys.  I spent a few afternoons introducing Chicken to her cuzzies and catching up on family gossip.  We also had a birthday party for Leo where the whole family (and some very welcome extras) came to our house for lunch.  So good to see everyone again!

Catching up with my god-daughter and our BFF's.  Emma totally loves Chicken and it was really nice introducing her to our BFF's (and Emma's parents) Neil and Ange, and their boy Tyler.

Catching up with our Ldn friends.  Everyone came to Ange and Neil's for a pot-luck lunch and we had so much fun catching up.  I got to hear everyone's news, (how was that keg party Vicky?) and we got to meet Naomi, Rose and Jono's beautiful little girl.

Introducing Chicken to her Dad's family.  We spent 24 hours visiting Andrew's family and introducing Eilidh to her two great-grandmothers.  We also got to see my Aunty Barb and Uncle Murray - hey guys!

So that's it, a three week whistle-stop tour to catchup up with old friends and family, I had so much fun (count how many times I've used the word so, far too many!) It was really sad leaving because I really miss these guys, when I'm here in the UK there are lots of cool people to distract me, but as they say, there's no place like home.

Daddy's little girl

Today was our last family day for a while, because tomorrow Chicken and I are off to NZ for three weeks (excited much!!) We didn't do anything special, tidied the house, folded laundry, went to the supermarket, got my eyebrows threaded (since they don't do that in NZ), and generally chillaxed in the heat 27c/80f .  It was a really nice day, especially the part with  ice-cream mid afternoon!

While I was packing Andrew kept Eilidh entertained downstairs.  I could hear this chatter from her and the occasional comment from her Dad, while she doesn't look a lot like me, she sure talks like me!  It all went quiet and I came down stairs to this - I mean how cute!!

When it got time for Chicken's bath, I got the camera out  because I was feeling a little sad that this would be the last time Andrew would bath her for a while.  It's their special time, Dad and his little girl, where they catch up on the day and hang out.

I know we'll Skype everyday so Chicken will still get to see her Dad, but I'm sure they're both going to miss their bath times!

PS since it takes 24 hours to fly to NZ I won't be able to blog until Tuesday, see you then!

Three Word Thursday

Well three key words anyway.  In the immortal words of P-Diddy 

"I'm coming home!"

Yep, that's right in three more sleeps Chicken and I are getting on a plane at LHR and heading to New Zealand for three weeks!  I am the luckiest girl on the planet!  I am also super excited, can you tell by my overuse of the exclamation marks!!!

Not only am I supper super excited I also have to pack, which is of course not exciting.  Normally when we go home I pack the night before (usually while drinking a glass of wine) and I just throw stuff in my rucksack and hope for the best. 

Not so this time, I'm really going to have to think about what to pack.  Chicken and I are both allocated a bag each but I don't honestly think I could carry two bags, and push the pushchair at the same time.  This means one bag between the both of us, and well, we are both clothes horses, hehe.

The clothes I think I can handle, its getting colder in NZ, so I'm going to take the clothes Chicken has been wearing here for the past month or so - long sleeved t-shirts, trousers and a few jumpers.  I'll also need a couple of her sleeping bags and body suits for bed.  I'm also going to take home all the clothes Chicken has grown out of to store under my bed, along with all our unopened wedding gifts (man I really want to use all our cool stuff!)

Its the other bits and bobs that I'm sure I'm going to forget!  I was thinking about this and chatting to my friend Ange (who took her daughter to NZ for a holiday when she was a baby) and she said, don't stress, they have it all there, and I'm sure you'll be in the supermarket within twenty four hours.  So this is what I'm going to do, focus on packing a useful carry-on bag for the plane, nappies, wipes, spare clothes, liquid paracetamol etc   and then I'll worry about the rest when I get there!

Until then I'm going to enjoy a couple of days as a family, Andrew is off work for Easter so we're going to chillax in the cracking sunshine!  Hope your Easter is great too!