Half Term Hols

I always love the October half term and this year was no different. We were treated to lovely autumnal weather on most days which meant washing on the line and walks in the park. We did so many things this past week that it has flown by and I really can't believe that it's back to the old routine tomorrow!

MB was spending the week with us so we had our full quota of children for the week. There were lots of things to fit in, some of them pretty routine but as is often the way they have to be done while were off from work/school.

We had trips to the park

Our Fabulous four

Bruno taking a rest 

Beautiful Autumn colour

After trips to the park we made time for hot chocolate and dvd's, we all enjoyed some quiet time after the fresh air.
We only had one whole day at home I had a job to do that I'd been putting off for a while. You can read about it here. I also had a couple of little sewing jobs to do and I'd promised L that we could make her Sock Monkey from a kit I'd got her for her birthday. We did it together and she's turned out pretty well, I think.

Careful does it!

She's taking shape

Ta Dah!!!!!

Trips to the shops were also required this week as my birthday always falls in half term. Mr P had given the children money so that they could each choose and buy their own gift to give to me. Two trips were required. The first to the local shops, as R had picked something from one of the many Christmas shop brochures we had lurking, and the second to a shopping centre. The girls went off one way while R & I were left waiting for them, so we had a wander in a few shops of his choice. He's really not a lover shopping of any kind but he was quite happy browsing in the 'boy' shops!

A sign of things to come?

We squeezed in a family trip to the cinema to see Johnny English, which made all of us laugh out loud along with all the other families. It was really lovely to hear so much laughter.

And then came the big day, my birthday! It has to be said that by the time my birthday comes, I've usually run out of steam, but this year the children and Mr P had been plotting and planning so I went with it as they had all put in so much effort.

I got up to banners on the walls and balloons all over the floor, my gifts (there were a lot of them!) were all presented beautifully and the children were all so excited that you'd have thought it was their birthdays!

Each one had chosen gifts that they thought I'd like, without help from any other adults and I was so touched and amazed at what they'd chosen.

Felix trying to blend in

From R, a two tier cake stand and two candles in glass jars to go on my dressing table. From MB a pencil case complete with contents for my work bag so that I no longer have to scrabble around in the deepest darkest corners of my work bag for a pencil only to discover there isn't one there! And two pretty nail polishes. From M and L a basket decorated with ribbons full of wrapped goodies including, chai tea, posh coffee, shortbread, a hairclip, socks, hazelnut syrup (for coffee) and pretty tissues.
Mr P ordered me some beautiful underwear from Victoria's Secret in America. It fits like it was made for me and made me feel very special.
After all my gifts and cards were opened L painted my toes for me and M made some lemon cupcakes. I'd decided that I'd like to go out for lunch instead of dinner so that's what we did. We headed to the local carvery for a nice roast dinner and we weren't disappointed. We all left rather full and came home for a relaxed afternoon doing nothing much, which was perfect.
Later on M presented me with the cakes she'd made. They were her first attempt at piping and I think she did a pretty good job.

Cakes on my new stand

I'm more comfortable being on the other side of the cakes!

 I think it was probably the best birthday I have ever had. Everyone had put so much thought and effort into me having a nice day That means more than anything. My girls had even bought and filled little party bags for us all out of their own money, it was a lovely touch and shows that even though as a Mum, I sometimes feel taken for granted, that they really do care.
It rounded of half term week really nicely. It's lovely just to have time to spend together as recently some of our weekends have been taken up with other things. The next time we're all off like this will be the Christmas holidays, which are getting ever closer. Thankfully another task we managed this week was the children writing Christmas lists, those shopping trips came in handy! I hope you all had a lovely half term too what did you get up to?

Bitter Sweet

Yesterday I finally did a job that I have been putting of for weeks months.
I inherited my Mums dressing table. I asked my sister if she would mind me having it and she very kindly delivered it on her first visit 'Up North' back in May.
It made the journey from Mum's in London to our house in three pieces. I'd cleared a space for it, Mr P put the pieces back together and there it sat, collecting dust, until yesterday.

It wasn't that I didn't want to use it, I did, I needed a dressing table, I'd actually been looking around for one but couldn't find anything I liked and then I inherited my Mum's.

This was a piece of furniture I had always admired. We moved house when I was twelve. My parents bought a few items of furniture from the owner, Mrs Boarderson, a lady who we knew through the church we attended.
There was a little white wardrobe, (which I desperately wanted to keep when we cleared the house, but sadly we had no room for it in our current house and nowhere to store it until we do have room. Many tears were shed over that) a set of for carved dining chairs and the dressing table. All were made by the owners husband, a carpenter by trade, for their family home.
I used to joke with my Mum about the dressing table, saying that it would look better in my room than hers and sometimes, when I still lived at home I'd get ready in her room so that I could use it.

So there it was, standing in the corner of our room gathering dust and the odd pile of washing. Mr P had been encouraging me to clear it off and sort it out. He even moved all my things (hairdryer, straighteners, make up and related items) over to that side of the room, which meant I was half using it, half not.

The reason I've been so reluctant to use it is because, that's me accepting that she's gone. Yes I have my Mum's beautiful dressing table, Yes I think she would be happy that I kept it but at the same time that means accepting that she's not with us anymore.
I didn't want to clean it off, I didn't want to fill it with my things, I wanted it just as it was, with a mark on the front where Mum had dripped tea and a chalky pink dust in the joins where sprinkles of her blusher had landed, but yesterday I did it.
I cleaned the marks, filled the drawers and placed on the top some very special trinkets.

On the left I have my Mum's Blue glass basket and My Nan's cut glass bottles which I blogged about here teamed with two Giraffe's. One was bought for me by a little boy I used to look after, she's Swarovski  and the other a little 'gold' and 'diamond' encrusted Faberge style Giraffe trinket box, who like me, is a little damaged. If you don't look too closely you'll never notice it, it's only on really close inspection that it becomes noticeable.
Hanging just above that is a heart pendant, bought for me by L on our last holiday. It's made from a bronze coloured stone which is supposed to symbolize prosperity. On the right I have an envelope housing tickets to the show M is performing in, a little 'Worlds greatest Mum' plaque and Mama & baby Birds, that look vintage but are actually from a high street store.
Centre stage is my favourite picture of my parents. My handsome Dad in his Naval uniform and my beautiful Mum looking stunning as ever.

Compared to how it looked when Mum had it, this is pretty minimalist! She had all kinds of little trinkets and keepsakes stored on there. Things I had given her when I was a child or things given to her or made for her by one of her many Grandchildren. Little memento's from days or nights out and of course make up and hair things dotted around too. It wasn't the tidiest of dressing tables, but it was well used and well loved, and now it's mine and I cherish it. I was going to say that I'm sure in time the bitter-sweet feeling will fade, but if I'm honest I'm not really sure it will.

Bowling Cupcakes

I'm going to be cheeky and double up on this blog as these cakes are also my entry to this weeks Cake of the week.

This week sees the last of my three children's birthdays for another year. M was happy with a shop bought cake, thank goodness, as her birthday is in the first week of the new academic term, always a busy time. (I've vowed that I will make her one next year, no matter what!) L asked for a Horse cake which she helped me to make although again because of work it was a little late. But she didn't mind and it was my first entry to the Cake of the week blog.
So next is R's birthday. It's actually on Wednesday but he had his party yesterday, so for him the cakes came early! He originally asked for a chocolate tray bake covered in sweeties but I didn't have a tin that was a good size. They were all too big or too small so I suggested chocolate cupcakes instead and luckily he agreed! I told him to leave it with me and I promised him I'd make them special.
I baked the cupcakes on the Friday night using my usual recipe and then sat down to see if I could pull off my idea.
I was originally going to transfer the sweetie topping idea from the tray bake to the cupcakes but then, from nowhere the idea of Bowling Balls and Bowling Pins came into my head. Well, I say from nowhere, R was having a Bowling party but the idea to put the theme onto the cakes just seemed to pop into my head. I like it when that happens!
So I bought a small pack of ready coloured icing and a pack of white icing and once all the children were tucked up in bed I attempted to make the cake toppers.

Fiddly to make but I really enjoyed it 

The next morning I was up early to decorate the cakes. I piped them with swirls of chocolate butter cream and popped on either a bowling ball or pin to each cake.

Cakes ready to go in the early morning sun

Set up at the party

I was very pleased with how they turned out and so was R. His little face when I showed him the toppers when he got up that morning was worth all the effort. He had a lovely party with his sisters and friends and he still has his actual birthday to come!

My Little boy, not sure how much longer he'll let me call him that!

A day off

Last week I had a day off in the week. Not something I have many of during term time. So like many working Mum's if I do get the odd day off then I put it to good use. I could sit at home, watch a bit of TV and relax but actually I can't! My Dad always said that if my Mum sat still her bum would be making buttons! A very odd saying but what it means is that she could never be still, she always had to be 'doing something', a trait that I seem to have inherited! If we have a 'lazy day' at home I find myself genuinely feeling anxious that I should be 'doing something'. I know that it can be frustrating for those who have to live with me and I know they don't understand because I can remember not understanding when I lived at home with my Mum. A film would come on TV and Dad & I would say we'd seen it but Mum would swear she hadn't and we'd always blame it on the fact that she never sat still long enough to watch one!

So on my day off I did all the usual daily chores, like cleaning up the kitchen and getting some washing done. I popped into town to pick up a parcel, go to the bank and pick up a few groceries and when I came home I headed for the kitchen.

We'd already eaten most of the cake I made at the weekend, although Mr P had taken some into work for a colleague to try so that's why it had disappeared quicker than usual (that's my excuse!) so I decided to make another one. We love the Fruit and Almond cake and I do make it most weeks so I decided to make something different. I've had Rachel Allens Bake book for a while and haven't used it much so I picked that off the shelf. I chose a recipe for an iced orange cake. It sounded lovely and I had oranges spare so even better. However, when I opened the oven I was horrified that the cake hadn't really risen and it had sunk in the middle. I was less than impressed! I iced it all the same and hoped it would taste better than it looked but I really wasn't happy. I still took a picture as I don't believe in only sharing successes and it was only just now as I looked up the recipe online so that I could include it here that I got to see a picture of Rachel's finished cake. Her cake has a sunken centre just like mine! She'd iced it a little differently but the cake itself was the same.

Too sweet for my taste

While the cake was in the oven I decided to make some soup to stock the freezer. Mr P likes to takes it to work for his lunch. I just used up what I had in the fridge which happened to be mainly root vegetables. So it was carrots, parsnips, swede, an onion, a leek and a squash that was lurking! I added some Garam masala and cinnamon to give it some warmth.

Ready for the freezer

Lastly I made a beef and barley casserole for our tea. I started it off on the cooker top and then once the cake was out of the oven I popped the casserole in, no need to heat the oven twice that way! I can't usually make a casserole in the week as I don't have time to cook them when I'm working so if ever I'm off that's what I'll make. And of course any good stew or casserole should have dumplings!

The recipe is so simple that it's barely a recipe at all!

I use
 200g self raising flour
 100g butter
pinch of salt
any herbs or spices I feel like adding
Water to mix

Rub in the butter into the flour by hand then add salt & herbs/spices and enough water to make into a soft dough. Roll into balls and place them on top of the casserole. (they'll be half in the liquid and half out) You can cover the casserole or leave it open for a crispier top to your dumplings but I cover mine you can use the same recipe to make a cobbler too. Bake for 30/35 minutes on gas4/180c at the end of cooking.

This makes about 12 dumplings.. You can adjust the recipe easily as it's simply 2 parts flour to 1 part butter
On this day I added some smoked paprika to the mix. It gave a lovely flavour and colour to the dumplings and complimented the smoked paprika in the casserole. And before anyone asks, I'm afraid there isn't a recipe for the casserole I just put in what I have to hand (beef, onions, celery, root veggies, unpeeled new potatoes and barley) with some good quality beef stock and what ever herbs and spices I fancy.

Ready for the oven

The whole house smelled amazing for most of the day and when everyone came in from school or work they were greeted by warm comforting smells wafting from the kitchen.

The casserole was lovely, really hearty and filling. The soup, Mr P tells me was very nice indeed but as for the cake......lets just say I won't be making it again in a hurry. Everyone else said they liked it but it really wasn't for me.

Silent Sunday

Apple crumbly cakes

I love trying out and making up new recipes. A lot of the time I take a basic recipe and play around with it a bit to get something.....well, different! That's what happened with the Orange and Chocolate Marble cakes I made for my RBOK entry and I have to say they went down really well with everyone who tried them.
So today while cooking dinner and making our favourite cake I decided to make something for the children's lunch boxes. So with that in mind I had to make something reasonably healthy. So I came up with these apple crumbly cakes. I was asked to share the recipe by a Twitter friend, so here it is!


Ingredients
225g self raising flour
110g sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp milk
3 tbsp apple sauce
1 or 2 eating apples cored but not peeled, finely chopped
Some muesli (any variety you like although plain oats would probably work just as well)

Put all the ingredients apart from the muesli into a food processor to combine.
Divide between approx 18 muffin cases
Sprinkle about a teaspoon of muesli on top of the mixture and bake in an oven at 180c/gas 4 for 18/20 mins until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a cake.

I'm pleased with the results. They're crunchy on top, moist in the centres but not too sweet, contain fruit, and not much fat, so reasonably healthy!

RBOK - Chocolate Orange Marble Cupcakes

RBOK or Random Bakes Of Kindness is a lovely idea that was started by Vanessa Kimbell. The idea is quite simply that you bake double of whatever you are making, keep one half and gift the other to someone you feel deserves a treat, for whatever reason. I loved this idea and I already quite often share my baking with the neighbours on either side of our house, as a thank you for taking a parcel in or just because I've made something I know the little ones or indeed the big ones will enjoy. I wasn't sure I'd officially take part, until the other day.

I think it's fair to say I've been having a tough time of things lately. I'm dealing with some very difficult family issues and I have been poorly for about three weeks. Work is......uncertain to say the least with potentially more uncertainty to come. Our aged cat took a turn for the worse (glad to say he's now fully recovered) and the fridge freezer is dying a slow death. Add to this three children with birthdays and it gets pretty stressful!

So can you imagine my horror when, whilst driving M to her theatre group a warning light started flashing on the dashboard of my car and to my dismay it started spluttering as we drove along. Once we'd arrived at our destination I looked at the manual and it seems it was something to do with the emissions or exhaust. I know nothing about cars but I knew this could not be a good thing and would probably be very costly, as cars tend to be. I was also worried as without my car I cannot work and if I don't work I don't get paid. Arghhh!!
Seriously......how much more could I take?
The following day I wasn't working as I had to attend court. I was meeting Mr P before hand as he was coming with me. Next to his work there is a garage. From the outside it's like a car grave yard, there are whole cars and parts of cars piled up and lining the drive. The owner is an older man, who under his overalls wear a shirt and tie. Walking into a garage, knowing I know nothing about cars, would fill me with dread, but this is the garage that has been looking after my car since the move north so I went in with Mr P. There was no sharp intake of breath, no muttering or tutting that you sometimes get in these situations, just a simple " leave it with us and we'll take a look" The owner had even agreed to lend me one of their cars if they needed to keep mine for more than the day. We left it there and headed off for our appointment. We came back less than two hours later and the lady from the garage waved us over as we passed by. My car was ready! Fixed and running like new, they had dropped everything  to look at my car. It turns out it was something quite simple, a part that needed replacing and they'd done it straight away. I was so relieved.

That's when I decided to do my first proper RBOK.
So this morning, just under a week later I baked a large batch of chocolate orange marble cupcakes, not something I'd made before, or had a recipe for, but that's what popped into my mind. So after the school run I whipped up a batch.
The recipe I came up with was this

200g unsalted butter
200g light soft brown sugar
200g self raising flour
4 eggs
4 tblsp milk
2 tblsp cocoa powder
zest of an orange
1 tsp natural orange essence

Place all the ingredients into the food processor, apart from the cocoa, zest and orange essence.
Once everything is combined put half of the mixture in a separate bowl. To the mixture that is left in the food processor add the cocoa and mix. To the mixture in the bowl, finely grate the orange zest and add the essence. Mix well.
I used 24 cake cases. They're an odd size from Ikea, not as big as muffins but bigger than fairy cakes. I might only make 18/20 in future.
Put a large teaspoon of each mixture into the cake cases. Take a skewer and swirl the two mixtures slightly.
Bake on 180c/gas4 for about 15-17 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
I topped some of the cakes with a little melted chocolate, but they're nice left plain too.

Marble cupcakes

Once cooled I popped nine cakes into a cake box and six into a plastic tub. I drove to the garage and found the owner in the office talking to his sister who also works there.I gave them the box of nine cakes and explained that I simply wanted to say thank you. I don't think I've ever seen two people more surprised to receive a gift! They really were genuinely delighted and a little taken back!
Next stop was Mr P's work, just next door. I was collecting some hedgehog boxes that he's made to donate to Warrington hedgehog rescue. I swapped him two hog houses for six cakes to share with his colleagues. He seemed happy with that and a few minutes after leaving I got a cheeky text asking what I'd be dropping off tomorrow!
 There are still some cakes left at home for the children to have after school or in their lunch boxes. It felt really nice to be able to make so many people smile, it could get addictive!

The lady in the garage, who I now know is called Barbara made a really good point. She said "So often you go out of your way to help people and it's so rare that they really appreciate it" At least they know I did!

Click here

I'm a little horse!

This is my first entry to Cake of the week and I was a little reluctant to share, simply because it's not up to the amazing standard that I usually see presented. But with a little gentle persuasion from some lovely Tweeters I have been brave and put my entry forward.

The cake was made for my daughter L's 10th birthday. She's a lovely girl and rarely asks for anything out of the ordinary but this year she asked for a cake, made by me. I was a little stressed by this because I was just getting back into the full swing of work after the summer holidays and all the new routines that go with 'back to school' season. The best I could do was offer to make the cake on the weekend after her birthday. I simply couldn't fit it in during the week. She was happy with this as not only did she get two cakes, but she got to help make one and it was only a day late, so not too bad!

Genoese made in a 2lb pudding basin!

You had to slice the cake in 3 and sandwich back together with chocolate butter icing. It needed to be a plain cake because the rest of it was made up of chocolate butter icing, chocolate fondant icing and fizzy cola laces!
Once we'd made all the body parts(legs, head and saddle) from chocolate fondant it was pretty easy to assemble.

Neigh!!!!

I usually stick to what I call everyday cakes and I've only ever made two novelty cakes before this one. I have to say we did have a lot of fun making Neddy and he didn't actually take all that long.
And most importantly of all, the birthday girl was very pleased with him. So I guess the Twitter lovelies were right. It's not all about perfection. Good job really!!

Making the most of it

I've been feeling very poorly of late and haven't really felt like doing much at all, but with the beautiful weather we've been having I really didn't want to waste a day sitting indoors. So I suggested to Mr P that we get out in the fresh air with the children and the dog, as this may well be the last sunny Saturday we get for a while. We decided to head for Heaton Park. It's a lovely park with so many different areas to explore. We packed up a picnic and got everyone into the car and headed off. We got to the park and set up camp near the shade of a tree, so hard to believe that it was the 1st of October!
There were so many families and groups in the park all enjoying the unusually good weather, it was lovely to see.

Heaton Hall in the distance

Changing colours in the October sunshine

Hazy day 

We spread out the blankets and took off our shoes. The breeze was so warm and yet still refreshing.

My view as I lay in the sun on our blanket

A little boy named Alfie took a shine to Bruno and we soon got chatting to him and his Mum, Lynsey.
We asked them to join us for a game of rounders.

Hot dog enjoying the breeze

A new friend

I wasn't up to running so I bowled. We all had a really good time, it's nice to make new friends and Alfie and Lynsey really seemed to enjoy having some other people to play with.
Our new friends headed off and we were joined by Mr P's parents, who arrived with a bag full of goodies to add to the picnic.

We did lots of eating, chatting and people watching. The children rolled down the hill, played all kinds of ball games and wandered through the wooded area collecting acorns and other bits of nature.

Rollin' rollin' rollin!!

Catch!

Nap time!

The sun dipped behind the clouds for a while. We decided to pack away the picnic and go for a walk.

Last game of cricket

We headed off for our walk and the sun came out again, which was lovely.

Monkey's in a tree!

Cattle in the park

Crossing the stream

We walked through the park with it's horses and cattle and the shady woodland areas. There are many squirrels and they are so tame. The tropical foliage we saw on our last visit had all gone and the paths were covered with fallen leaves from the trees, still beautiful, just different.
The sunshine had certainly made me feel better and the fresh air had worn us all out, so after a final stop at the play area we headed for home with the in-laws in tow. While the children showered I made a simple tea of pizza, pasta and salad. It really was a lovely day.
On waking this morning I noticed the lack of sunshine peering through the blinds of our bedroom. Sadly I'd been right. The sunshine of yesterday had been replaced with grey drizzle, more typical of this time of year. But that fact just made yesterday even more special and I'm very glad we made the most of it.