Imbolc

II am trialling getting up earlier than my usual 7am. No radical 5am starts (I am not that keen) but just an extra hour to try and embrace the fact that I am more a lark than a night owl. I took advantage of the peace and quiet to light some candles in honour of Imbolc. Or Candlemas. Or Groundhog Day depending on your persuasion.

It was nice to sit in peace and solitude watching the flames flicker, thinking about the promise of Spring and just breathe.

I was afforded the most beautiful sunrise. Forgive the last picture I was hanging out of my bedroom window to get it!

It is a time of purification and cleansing after Winter and I had the urge to open all the windows wide and let in the fresh air. However there are downsides to a husband who works from home, they don't take too kindly to freezing cold air blowing through the house while they work. 

I wasn't afforded the time today to break out the home made citrus cleaner but the Spring clean will start with gusto tomorrow.

In honour of the rebirth of the sun I decided I fancied some little mouthfuls of sunshine to eat. 

Lemon and orange curd tarts. I had a go at hot water pastry recipe, something I had not done before.

Wow. Melt in the mouth pastry. I was a wee bit stingy with the curd (so Hubby informs me) but quite frankly I having had to scrape off welded on jam the last time I made tarts I was trying to save myself extra work.

As befitting some Imbolc rituals as usual every room in our house appears to have had the light left on.....it's like Blackpool Illuminations! Good job we have energy saving light bulbs fitted.

Punxsutawney Phil reckons we have another six weeks of Winter left. Whether we have or not, despite being a Winter girl at heart, I am looking forward to seeing the signs of Spring as the wheel of seasons turns.

Red, White and Blue

The time has come to emerge from the closet.
I cannot hide it any longer.
The urge to be myself is overwhelming.
I personally blame it on the bunting.
Here goes. I am a Royalist. I have succumbed to the lure of a Jubilee tea party*. I tell myself it's for the pups benefit but I'd be lying.

Generally my motto is less is more. I decided to ditch that for this weekend ;)

Some hastily scribbed notes about food. Parties for me are all about the food and since you already knew I was a lists girl are you suprised I wrote one? I thought not.
As you can see we don't do fancy. After all pups won't think it's a party if it doesn't cater for their immature tastes. When asked Pup1 declared he wanted crisps for his party food. Nothing else just crisps. If anyone has the answer to broadening the taste buds of a child with autism I am all ears. Thankfully I have a fair idea of what Pup1 will eat and will bung a bit extra on his plate so no need to call Social Services just yet.

I love bunting. Just as well I bought enough to hang inside as well as out. Inside the lounge Union flag mania reigns supreme. Note I referred to it as Union flag. My first boss was an ex Navy man and would staunchly reprimand us for referring to it as the Union Jack. Old habits die hard. Who knew it was only to be called "Jack" when aboad a ship? According to this site my old boss is mistaken but I'll humour him for old times sake.

Thank you Aldi for you cheap as chips mugs. Just perfect for what we Brits do best. Sit on our butts and drink tea.

Enjoy the Jubilee bank holiday, whether you're a Royalist or a Republican.

*I say party, it's basically myself, my Husband, the Pups, the cat and the dog. When questioned I had to inform Pup1 that it was unlikely that Killer Cat would actually be attending. Cue much crestfallen face pulling and "awww" noises. In order to boost the numbers I've invited my parents and their puppy too. So perhaps not a party in the traditional sense but not sure the Pups would understand "soiree" or "gathering" so a party it is. Lets just hope they don't expect party bags too........

Oh crumbs...

So the Christmas holidays have officially begun in earnest. Am I the only one it fills with dread? No? Just me then? Ho hum.....
OK dread is a bit of strong word but oh my word it's only day two and I am already shattered. You will of course sit and assume I've been dashing here, there and everywhere entertaining the kids. Nope. I haven't set foot outside of this house for 2 whole days. Cabin fever? Moi?
I've been on my feet all day doing various activities with the pups. Painting and glitter, colouring in Christmas pictures (sadly not one of them has chosen the picture of Mary and Jesus) and generally creating a mess that needs regular tidying in order to preserve my sanity (although I confess it was at breaking point after the state of the lounge again tonight).

There is one activity which is routinely begged for and is a holiday time staple in this house.

Baking.
Special requests were make for Christmas cookies. How I wish I'd never bought those Christmas themed cutters.
Since Pup1 has the memory of an elephant this promise was one I couldn't wriggle out of. So I originally planned biscuits with the pups and that was it. However for some reason I was struck by the urge. To do more baking. Next time I have this irrational desire someone please slap me round the face and bring me to my senses. Don't get me wrong I love baking. Just not 3 different items in one afternoon while practising being a UN peace negotiator.

Now bear in mind I am not a tidy cook, I tend to bake and create in a state of chaos. Add pups to the mix and it's increased tenfold as they jockey for positions to see best at the work top, demand to sniff, poke and stir the ingredients. I put things down and then I can't find them, several tea towels are used and please Father Christmas bring me a dishwasher. I've lost count the number of times today I've had to wash up.

My festive cutters. I hid the angel as quite frankly it's a total PITA to get the biscuit dough out of without severely deforming her wings. Likewise the Snowman one and his silly little brim on his hat. We need simple shapes and these ones fit the bill. Biscuits are now cooked and will be decorated tomorrow with glace icing and sprinkles because why would I want to give myself a break from cleaning up ;)

I've not used this tin for........mumble mumble well far too long anyway and for some reason I decided to bake some doughnuts. Or is it donuts? Really who cares....

Mix the batter according to the instructions. Be sure to dribble lots of excess batter over the tin because it will have been 40 seconds since you last had to tidy up. By the way do you like Pup1's Iron Man picture lurking at the side. Told you I work in chaos, it was dicing with death sitting there.

The finished goods, liberally rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Only it would only really stick to the one side of the doughnut. Oh well who cares. Note to self oiling the pan is totally insufficient to allow the doughnuts to be removed whole. It is necessary to butter the entire pan. Another note to self......even partially broken they still slip down a treat.

Biscotti. Chocolate with mixed nuts. Don't ask me what nuts as I haven't got a clue.
Supposed to also go down very nicely with a coffee or some booze. If I ever get the peace and quiet for 5 mins I'll try it and be sure to let you know.

Will this stuff last til Christmas. I doubt it.
Will I be making it all again in time for Christmas? Get knotted.
I shall be doing as nature intended and serving up Cadbury's Chocolate Yule Log and sitting on my butt watching The Santa Clause. Because for some strange reason I have thing for Tim Allen.

Nearly Free Food?

Not 100% having paid for food items in the first place but getting something extra from leftovers. Having hung around the OS boards on Moneysavingexpert for a while now I realise I am not quite as OS hardcore as I like to think. People make lots of references to using the parts of veg that others aka moi throw away to make soup. "Madness" screams my inner food phobias. Some say fussy I say food phobia ;) When I sit and think about it I find eating other people's food mighty uncomfortable at times. I remember having a quite restricted palate and finding textures of some foods unpleasant (still do actually). Not hard to see why pup1 has ended up with ASD, that apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
I digress however. Having purchased some bargain fresh broccoli and cauliflower I duly trimmed off the florets and left the stems to compost. Which when I decided to push the boat out and use them to make some soup.

Nope this is not something you'd take to the Doctor to be tested, I saved the water I blanched the veg in before freezing. I figured it would be loaded with good stuff from the veg.

I added a couple of potatoes which as you can see made it a bit thick. I thought about thinning it down a bit but to be honest I prefer the sort of soup that sticks to your ribs.

So the verdict. I used the slow cooker. For too long so parts of it became a little well done which did affect the taste a somewhat. However I think I would definately make it again. Not sure I could be persuaded to use the carrot peelings though. Might be a step too far ;)

Adventures in Pastry

Friends of mine think shortcrust pastry is really difficult. I confess I don't find it troublesome but as you'll see below my efforts are not always that pretty.
Since Autumn appears to have started (one of my favourite times of year) I felt the urge to make some cockle warming cornish pasties. There will be pastie purists out there who will shriek in horror at the fact that I am not using swede but this is my version and one that I WILL eat.

All hail the food processor. Takes the faff out of making pastry and saves my fingers from all that endless rubbing together.

Having rolled out the dough pile on the filling. And pile I did.

Like said results not pretty, they look like pastry hedgehogs! Certainly not folded a nice and neat way. Basically it was the last of my plain flour, didn't quite have enough pastry for all my filling, I piled it in and some of the pastry was a bit thin in places and was threatening to break free ad it all had to be squeezed together! I am suprised they held together during cooking. Still as long as they taste OK that's what counts ;)

Actually I think when I serve these up for the pups I might tell them they are eating hedgehog. Or am I being a cruel mummy?

Where did the time go?

I must apologise for my lack of blogging this week. I am into the 3rd week of the summer holidays and with 3-4 kids are various times of the day (I work full time generally through the holidays, term times I have more time to myself) I am struggling to stay on top of things. Then I've pretty much spent many a night this week glued to the news channels and internet following the trouble up and down the country, especially Birmingham as that's the city I live closest to. I shan't use this blog as a platform for my thoughts as to how or why these terrible events occurred but despite all the naval gazing and analysing that's going on only those who committed these acts know their reasons for doing so and I hope to goodness they reaslise the impact of their actions on the community around them.

Anyway there are a few random pics of things I managed to take a quick photo of, they're in no particular order and certainly don't have any links to one another other than it's what I've made this week!

This plus.....

.....this equals....

....heaven in a wrap.

I have no idea what an authentic fajhita contains (to my shame) but chicken, onion, peppers, grated cheese and salsa hits the spot every time. I confess the salsa was shop bought but in future I will batch cook my own. Honest ;)

I love my home made tortilla wraps. Far more filling than shop bought albeit significantly smaller. But I know what went into them and aside from the rolling out and dry frying they really don't take much time at all. The cost of this feast? Probably just under a £1 per person. I am terrible at pricing things......it's not that I don't aim to be frugal (I do) but I haven't got the time or inclination to price it all down to the last pence. Kudos to those that do though.

Rolled out hot cross bun dough. Buttered and sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. I was a wee bit heavy handed with the cinnamon but it's in a large container (bulk bought from Costco) and it pours out a little too easily!

Rolled, cut and left to rise.

Cinnamon buns. Delish. Some might say cinnamon is more of an Autumnal taste but quite frankly I could eat it all year round. Add to that the weather this week has felt like Autumn is just around the corner so how many more excuses do I need. Actually the truth is a little more boring. I make home made bread using the sachets of yeast. However after some experiementing with quantities I worked out I didn't need a full sachet of yeast so I save the excess and when I have enough I use them to make buns. Slightly MSE, not enough to clear the mortgage but as Tesco say "Every Little Helps".

Picked from the tubs in the garden. Despite me being terribly neglectful and not watering every day these lovely carrots have not failed to thrive. Who needs to pay organic prices when I can grow my own for far cheaper. Delicious sweet orange loveliness, I've never seen the kids more keen to eat vegetables as when we pick them straight from the garden.

Welcome to Magic Bean, my 11th follower :) I would love to reply to your comment on the Killer Cat post but for some reason Blogger doesn't actually want me to comment on my own blog unless I wish to be known as Anonymous! If anyone can explain why I am all ears.