Week 22: rhubarb how I love thee!

I'm happy to report that week 22 was not "blah" like its predecessor but rather... tangy! Tangy like beautiful, delicious, pink rhubarb.

I love spring/early summer, the sun comes out to play, flowers and trees are blooming and my favourite fruits come into season. I also love that it's the season of rhubarb. And this week I've made the most of it, cooking rhubarb in a number of ways. 

First we had rhubarb fools, a quick and easy recipe stolen from Weight Watchers. 

To make these you'll need 450g rhubarb, 1 bag (24g) of raspberry jelly crystals, 200ml of boiling water, 200g of greek yoghurt, 4tbsp of sugar (or sweetener) and a couple of handfuls of porridge oats. Chop the rhubarb. Pour the crystals and water in a pan, once the crystals are dissolved, add the rhubarb. Cover and leave to simmer for 10 minutes, until the rhubarb is tender. Transfer the contents of the pan to a food processor and blitz the whole thing. Leave to cool for a while then add the sugar to taste and the greek yoghurt. Blitz again. Pour in glasses and leave to set. Just before serving, put the oats in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC for about 10 minutes to toast them. Sprinkle on top of the rhubarb fools and enjoy. 

After the fools came the classic combination of rhubarb and custard in the form of a cake. It was a baking experiment, one which I plan to enter in an upcoming baking competition so I won't be sharing my recipe just yet, or much about the cake for that matter. All I'll say is that it's a really good looking cake and it was truly delicious. Hubby and his colleagues got to be the judges of my first attempt. 

Finally, we ended the week with a luscious crumble. I used a James Martin recipe and it turned out perfectly. I only used about half the sugar in the rhubarb mix as I like it tangy and I also used a half flour/half oats mix for the topping. I served it with a dollop of clotted cream ice cream but double cream or custard would have done the trick just fine.

Outside my rhubarb obsession, I have been experimenting with cheap crafts this week. Inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest, I came up with two activities for my toddler.

First I recycled a cardboard box, strengthened it with Duck tape then made a series of holes in it with the help of a scalpel and a knitting needle. Add a (dirt cheap) bag of pipe cleaners and hey presto, hours of fun for the little person, arranging and re-arranging the pipe cleaners in the different holes. Although I must admit, I'm still not sure who had the most fun playing with it, our daughter or her parents.

Next I chopped a cardboard tube in bits of different size and stuck them to the side of a cupboard then I gave our daughter a bowl full of (again, cheap) pompons. She loved chucking the pompons through the tubes and delighted in the watching them fall back in the container. It really doesn't take much to entertain a small person, does it?

I've also explored the latest teenage craze this week, rainbow loom bands. A bag of these bands costs less than £2 at our local store. I've used my knitting loom to make single band bracelets, which was pretty easy. Now I need to find more designs to challenge myself or I'm at risk of quickly losing interest.

That's it from me for this week. Enjoy the sunshine folks x

Week 21: Friendship

This week has been a bit of a "blah" week. Even though I have been very busy, it feels like I didn't achieve much at all or maybe I just didn't stop long enough to appreciate whatever I did accomplish. The week started well enough but somewhere down the line I ran out of puff.

I think the best example of how it all went down is in the meals I've served up. I normally take great pride in cooking healthy meals for my little family on a daily basis. So, on Monday we had a lovely homemade pasta salad full of fresh, colourful, tasty ingredients. By Saturday I was plating up Ikea hotdogs, with a portion of broccoli on the side just to assuage my guilt. That pretty much says it all.

But, the good thing about blogging more regularly is that it forces me to take long hard look at my life. All the time. And by taking another look at my "blah" week, I realised I'm actually a very lucky girl. I have friends. Many lovely friends. And I'm so grateful for it.

I live in a pretty cool neighbourhood. What I've found here is a real sense of community and I love it. I've bonded with my really lovely neighbours (we're currently planning a street party - watch this space) and we often have fun stuff happening right on our doorsteps. Last Sunday there was a mini springtime festival in the local park where we made the most of the gorgeous weather in the company of our friendly neighbours.

Chilling in style

As we have no family living nearby, I'm reliant on my friends to help me in times of need, especially with hubby away for work so often. And yet another friend came through for me this week when I really wanted to attend my monthly WI meeting but had no one to look after our daughter. I'm always a bit shy about asking for babysitting but this month's meeting was about furniture upcycling and I really wanted to be there.

I made a batch of shortbreads so my friend had something to munch on while babysitting for me. I use Mary Berry's recipe for shortbread, it's simple but efficient. I like that.

These came in handy too when I welcomed another friend into our home on Friday. My friend Lotte is a fellow blogger with a daughter the same age as mine. Part of her house is currently without a roof, you can read all about her woes on her awesome blog. Despite a migraine plaguing me that day, it was great having her around, I just loved the company. And it's always fun to watch our daughters interact nicely together, or thoroughly ignoring one another as the case may be.

So there you go, I have friends and they definitely make my life a lot brighter, even on a "blah" week. And that's why it makes me extra happy to see my daughter building friendships of her own. Currently, she and her childminder's daughters are fast becoming BFFs and I can't hold back an "Aaaaah" every time we arrive there and they toddle off together hand in hand. Cute or what?

On another note, I did manage to make more than just a batch of shortbreads this week. I've blinged up another pair of trainers for my daughter. The lucky girl now has her own personalised high tops. It's taken me a stupid amount of time to figure out how to best transfer the N onto the canvas (freehand calligraphy isn't one of my strong points). Eventually I settled for cutting the outline with a scalpel and then following the cut with a pencil. Worked a treat!

N for Nimue 

I've also made some pink grapefruit marmalade last night. Earlier in the week, I'd bought some pink grapefruits from our local greengrocer and they're the most delicious, sweet, juicy grapefruits I've ever eaten. They inspired me to try my hand at marmalade and it payed off. Just one of these beauties produced 4.5 pots of marmalade. At 40p for the grapefruit, I'd say that's a pretty good return on investment! And it is delicious too. So delicious in fact that I keep trying to find excuses to eat some.

So, with this lovely marmalade to fuel me, let's hope next week will be a whole lot less "blah" and a whole lot more "wow".

Week 20: Baking, bling and cycling

This week started with a tea party for Contact the Elderly. My husband and I became volunteers for the charity last year and agreed to host a tea party twice a year for lonely elderly people. Since January this year I've taken on extra responsibilities as our local group's coordinator.

Contact the Elderly is a charity really close to my heart. In this day and age, having children really doesn't guarantee there will be someone looking after you or keeping you company in old age. Hubby and I are a prime example of that, we've both moved abroad and while we love our parents very much and will do as much as we can to assist them, we're not exactly grow old in loneliness. That's why we volunteer.

Homemade sausage rolls

Usually hubby is the baker in this house but with work calling him away earlier than expected, it fell on me to do most of the baking this time. Hubby did manage to make a mean lemon tart before leaving though, even if it did give him quite a run for his money!

Hole in the otherwise perfect tart was courtesy of a curious toddler...

This time, the rest of the grub on offer included sandwiches, homemade sausage rolls, waffles, carrot cupcakes and meringue nests.

As always, it was all well received and our elderly guests had a lovely afternoon being entertained by our cat making somersaults trying to catch insects and flying leaves while our toddler was being all round cute as only she can do.

The crystals for my blinging project arrived this week so I was able to finish decorating Nimue's shoes. I'd originally thought I'd decorate the whole front part of the shoe but I decided against it in the end, I just think it would be too much. Anyway, I've already used close to 500 crystals as it is! I have another pair of high tops which I'm planning to add a little bling to, hopefully I'll get round to it this week.

My daughter was rummaging through my expansive craft stash this week and pulled out a bag of scoobidoo cords so I felt compelled to make her one. Inspired by the weather I picked some sunshine colours. Incidentally, scoobies are really great with teething babies, Nimue loves chewing on them when her teeth are annoying her. I do need to learn to make spiral ones, just for variety's sake.

I have a confession to make, I am completely addicted to manicures and pretty nails. Every time I keep telling myself that they're unnecessary and a waste of money and really bad for my own nails but I always end up caving in. Last month I had some very pretty spring nails with cherry blossoms painted on them, this month I've gone for a more classic, yet still a tad quirky look.

We've gone and checked on the cygnets this week and were saddened to see that three haven't made the cut. I know it's nature and all that but it still feels cruel that they can't all survive. The ones left over are still pretty darn cute and fluffy.

On Friday I received a belated birthday gift in the form of a bike seat for my daughter. I love cycling, it is by far my preferred method of transport, but I hadn't been on the bike since getting pregnant with Nimue. The morning sickness made me too weak and then with baby in tow, I couldn't really go anywhere on the bike, until now. We took it for a spin on the Bristol-Bath cycling path yesterday and had great fun until our little ride was cut short by Nimue falling ill halfway. Life with kids, he! I am very happy to be back on the saddle though and can't wait to cycle some more.

My little stuntwoman :-)

That's pretty much the week wrapped up but it wouldn't be complete without a picture of hubby's baking treat for this weekend. Yes, yes, I'm a lucky girl!

Fresh crumpets, nom, nom!

Enjoy the sunshine folks x

Week 19: sunshine and tears

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm now approaching this blog in a different way. From now on I'll be blogging an update on a (hopefully!) weekly basis, interspersed with the occasional, more detailed post. If you see anything that piques your curiosity in a weekly update and you want me to elaborate, please leave me a comment or drop me a line.

This week started with a fab bank holiday weekend. The sun was shining and with the return of Make Sundays Special, Bristol was at its best. The streets were packed with people and it all had a vibrant festival-like atmosphere. There was even a massive water slide down one of the city's main arteries. Amazing! We had a fab family day out taking it all in.

Our daughter got to explore the great outdoors some more, has carried on caring for her naming tree and was introduced to the art of barbecuing.

Weeks ago, I thought I'd make some coloured rice for Nimue to play with but there's no way I'm going to let her play with it indoors (I'm not a huge fan of the vacuum cleaner at the best of times!) so with the arrival of the sunny weather, she finally had a chance to play with it. It's really simple to make and, unlike the gravel on our patio, I don't mind if she ends up eating some.

I've also started blinging up some trainers for the little miss this week but I've run out of crystals mid-project so all I can show you for now is the start. I should be able to show you the finished article later this month.

Mid-week the weather soured and we received the devastating news that a friend, who played a role in getting hubby and I together, has ended her long battle with cancer. It was a sad day with lots of tears but also many hugs and stolen kisses with my daughter. Life is oh so short and far from fair, it's important to hug the people we hold dear and tell them how much we love them as often as possible. In an attempt at dispelling some of the sadness of the day, I decided to introduce our toddler to baking. We made a chocolate and marmalade cake and an awful lot of mess! But I dare say this little one has already inherited her parents' love of baking.

It's not just baking our daughter is interested in though. Lately, she has been desperate to contribute in the kitchen. Sadly we don't have much space on the counter tops for her to sit on and it makes me really nervous when she is up there. So, my husband, who loves a bit of woodwork, has made her a little helper pod. It was finished last night and Nimue has christened it with enthusiasm today. Hubby has done us proud, it's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship and with some tender loving care, it will make a fab heirloom. The only downside is that with a toddler involved in the food prep and the washing up, we're going to have a whole lot more kitchen cleaning to do!

Tomorrow we're hosting a tea party for Contact the Elderly so there's some frantic baking going on here this weekend, you'll hear all about it in next week's update. Until then, take care x