pleeeease

i love when mr Z sleeps well and is full of beans and energy. however he has so much enthusiasm that it can be hard to get out of the house when we need to. we move from room to room gathering clothes, siblings and food as we prepare to leave - each room is like a treasure chest - he finds something he desperately wants to do - we walk in to the living room and he spots a book he wants read to him, we walk in to the hall and he spreads a pack of cards on the floor and wants to play a game, we walk in to the bedroom and he wants to jump and play on the bed, we walk in to the kitchen and he wants to play chase or build a train-set, we walk in to his sisters room and he wants to play with the doctor's set. each suggestion is followed by desperate pleading "just quickly just mega-quickly","as a treat", "pleeeease pleeeeease". i don't enjoy having to say no a million times to all his lovely enthusiastic suggestions and explain that we dont have time and could do it later etc. this is why some days we just don't leave the house! and why birthday parcels are always sent late. 

our latest escapade was to the post office where i ended up holding up a HUGE queue while i crawled on all fours in front of the check-out, butt-crack on full show, over-heating in my cashmere jumper, scraping the contents of a huge box of scattered raisins up off the floor and trying to calmly tell my children not to keep running off and taking things off shelves, while defensively explaining to the lady at the check-out that it was her computer system being down that was holding everything up, not me!

Little mr Z's favourite meal is macaroni cheese. With the time it can take to get out of the house, do something meaningful or productive and get back again, i often need to be able to cook a quick (comforting - for me!) meal and this is a winner.

macaroni cheese

melt a big chunk of butter in a saucepan on low heat, add 2 tablespoons of flour and stir with a whisk for 1 minute.

while stirring, slowly add a little warm milk until it thickens, then add more.. continue this process until you have added about a pint of milk, stirring as much as possible along the way.

while you are making the sauce, boil macaroni or pasta of your choice. i normally add chopped up carrots or courgette and peas for the last 2 minutes.

add a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg to the cheese sauce

when the sauce is a nice thick-ish consistency, remove from the heat and stir in your choice of - some grated cheese, an egg, left-over sausages or bacon (chopped up).

mix the pasta, veg and sauce and serve. Little Z eats about three servings of this.

basic cupcakes

These are super super easy and quick to whip up. so if you're seeing someone on their birthday why not surprise them with some cupcakes? And hopefully the kids won't feel too sick from licking batter and eating icing and sprinkles to enjoy the tea party.

preheat the oven to 160
Gather:

110g(1cup) self-raising flour

110g(1/2 cup) caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

110g(1/2cup) margarine

2 eggs

sift the flour, sugar and baking powder

add the vanilla extract

add the butter and eggs

beat all the ingredients well (cover the mixer so flour doesn't fly everywhere)

put the batter in to 12 cupcake cases and bake for 20 mins

meanwhile lick the utensils clean

we even tried our hand at piping some buttercream icing. piping was always one of those things that i have wanted to try but it seemed too complicated and too much effort. it was in fact very easy, fun and effective (for a first attempt). if your kids like squeezing toothpaste tubes etc, they will love piping.

Beat well:

225g (1&1/2 cups) icing sugar

100g(1/2 cup) soft butter
+ a few drops of food colouring (or squeeze in some cherry or blueberry juice for natural colouring)

have your child hold the piping bag while you fill it with icing

fold over the top of the bag and hold it tightly (to avoid the icing squeezing upwards) while they squeeze icing on to the cupcakes (you can slightly direct the movement this way too)

et voila

decorate with sprinkles
and enjoy!

eggs

here is my not so hot start to a supposedly healthy lent!...oops.. and just because it was all there in the fridge on the first day of lent and it needed to be used up. 

so much too for hubby and my decision to start running - on alternate days for all of Lent. Day 7 and we're failing miserably.

but on a more positive note - oh my goodness fresh organic eggs are so delicious!.. and the yokes are so orange! 

We have started to get organic eggs delivered with our veggie box. Even if i buy free-range organic eggs from the supermarket, these Riverford eggs are SO much more delicious. As are my friends eggs who keeps chickens in her backgarden.


a favourite breakfast for the kids - boiled, poached or fried - as long as the yoke is super runny and dippable. i love serving up eggs. they feel so full of goodness

i discovered recently the joys of poaching eggs by just cracking them in to a saucepan of simmering water (add a pinch of salt). the kids love pouring in an egg and watching it make great shapes in the water.

                                 

banana muffins

Who doesn't always have a few rotting bananas in the fridge? here is a recipe for some quick, easy and yummy muffins. you could add raisins, choc chips, nuts or peanut butter to spice things up a little. However they are delicious just as they are, plain and simple, with a hint of cinnamon. This recipe also makes the best banana bread EVER but we needed quick muffins on this occasion - when do you not need a quick muffin hit?

Gather:

125g butter

180g brown sugar

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp ground cinnamon

250g/2cups plain flour

1 tspn baking powder

3/4 tsp bicarb of soda

3 tblspns warm milk

 mix the butter and sugar until smooth

 mash the bananas and add them

 add the eggs and mix some more

 add the cinnamon, vanilla extract, cinnamon, flour, baking powder

mix the bicarb of soda with the milk and add to the mix

bake at 180 for 10-15mins. always take them out of the oven when they look almost done [too early is better than too late]- then they will be nice and moist. yum

 

i used some leftover batter to make a loveheart as i had been away from the family over night and had missed them and wanted to say i loved them... aahhhh

meatballs in tomato sauce

meatballs are one of those things i buy at the supermarket and think i should really make at home. so we finally did. the kids loved making and eating them. 

my one big mistake was getting started late on this meal and attempting to involve two very hungry toddlers - they were desperate to eat anything in front of them - which happened to be raw meat and eggs! mmm.

i ended up shouting and alarming both of them at various points - making my 2 year old cry in fact - 'uggh this is all going horribly wrong, getting very late and not why i involve my kids in the cooking!' 

and then it got better. I gave little Miss M some raw veggies and a blunt(ish) knife to keep her happy while Mr Z and i went to work on the meatballs - him promising not to eat any more of the raw mix!

1. put 4 tablespoons olive oil in a saucepan with pinch of salt 

plus 3 pints/1.5L of tomato puree 

Kiddies loved squeezing out an entire tube of tomato puree and watching the cool shapes of the swirling oil in the tomato mix

2. Cook the tomato sauce over low heat while you make the meatballs, stirring occasionally

3. grate 125g/4oz parmesan cheese and 1 small loaf of crusty white bread

4. Add 500g/1lb of lean minced beef plus 3 eggs to the grated bread & cheese - mix it all together

5. Add a little salt & pepper and a ladlefull of the tomato sauce and give a good mix

6. the best bit - shape the squishy mixture in to nice round plum-sized meat balls. 

Little Mr Z said he wanted to make "the biggest meat ball in the world ever!"

7. Using a big spoon, put the meatballs carefully in to the tomato mixture and simmer for 30mins

8. Serve on spaghetti (although my kids loved the meatballs so much they didn't want to eat any spaghetti. The meatballs have bread and eggs mixed in so they are nice & filling)

You could add red peppers, beans or peas to the mix or serve courgette on the side.

basil

i never seem to be able to keep a basil plant alive for very long which frustrates me because i love the idea of having a thriving basil plant and i love to put fresh basil in my cooking. they also can make the kitchen smell divine. it feels a waste to keep buying basil. i have finally looked up how to keep a basil plant alive and i'm hoping the tips will help this one survive. 

                                       

i found there are whole blogs devoted to basil - here and here - they are lovely. The main way i seem to be going wrong is lack of sunshine... better find a new home for my basil plant. One site also suggests Basil needs a steam clean once a week! This site has good tips for all herb growing.

a few of my favourite things

i can't help but love peanut butter, banana and honey. perhaps it's my american blood but they are three of my favourite things and mixing them together is the ultimate treat - especially with a good cup of tea... and of course a little yellow digger.

the digger did just happen to be on the table but looks rather lovely with the banana

perhaps add in some nutella and ice-cream for true indulgence... mmm

playing with nuts

a lovely activity with a three year old is playing with nuts and a nut cracker (it involves crushing, breaking and bits flying around the room). Little Mr Z likes to talk about the different types of nuts and guess what's in each shell, eating them as we go! and the shells are lovely textures.

grand plans

today i had grand plans to take the kids to a new play group & the toy library, write thank you cards & birthday cards AND run errands - post all those overdue thank you cards, send the birthday parcel & buy MUCH-needed milk. however after a broken night my energy was low and the kids got in to a stay-at-home groove. you know the one - where getting everyone dressed & out would be like pulling teeth. Various poo and wee incidents (the kids... not me!) combined with totally dirty dreadlocked hair (again the kids - though mine is not far off) meant a bath seemed like a very good idea. the kids stayed in the bath for over an hour. it was brilliant. i pottered around, went in and out, did laundry, tidied, dressed myself (no shower again.. armpit hair almost down to hips). by 11am i was dressed and kids were in cosy dressing gowns admiring their wrinkly fingers.

we moved on to a toy-sort which involved 4 year old finding and taking OUT every interesting toy he had forgotten we had. and 2 year old taking great glee in chucking toys in boxes, while mummy picks up the toys covering the floor of the entire house and tries to put them away in their correct box.

it is interesting having a boy and a girl and the mix of toys. i'm all for not directing my kids towards certain interests and i'm glad my daughter is surrounded by trains, cars and trucks and that my boy gets to play with dolls and try on bracelets. i did like finding my daughter putting the train track in to her baby crib, rocking it and singing "rock, rock, rock the train". 

Little mr Z really didn't want to get dressed and Miss M was getting grumpy and hungry so of course errands were abandoned and lunch time it was. yummy home-made pizza and chocolate chip cookies (carbo-loading seeing as we'd all got so much exercise & fresh air in the morning - ha).

i do love a good morning in with no agenda and no time pressures. i could feel my stress levels rising as we neared pre-school start time. i started clock-watching, getting impatient and quickly losing that lovely sense of meandering freedom & playfulness that no agenda holds. however i'd go stir-crazy and get very fat and lonely if i did it too often. and i am now relishing son at preschool and daughter asleep time!

The Gallery

so i'm taking part here in The Gallery from the blog Sticky Fingers.

Here are my landscape photos

i love this landscape because of the contrast between the beautiful peaceful flat sea and the jagged intriguing window in the foreground. we crept in to this old house on the coast of Ireland and had a nosey around. it had belonged to my ancestors, been sold to developers and had sat empty for some time. There was graffiti, rubbish and signs of squatters. We found old letters addressed to my great aunt in the top rooms. it was scary and thrilling walking over broken floor boards and waiting to hear footsteps somewhere in the abandoned house.

and i couldn't resist posting this amazing sky. just what are those clouds doing?