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On the move

Well, it's a week on, and Auntie Becky's tough love solution seems to be working for the nights. We've had a few nights in a row now where Zachary has just quietly laid down for sleep after his bedtime story without having to be fed or rocked to sleep - yay! He also seems to settle pretty quickly at night as well if he wakes up - although it's still hard to just leave him there if he seems really upset. Just need to get something similar working for his daytime naps now. Hopefully it's all part and parcel of him being more active in the day and tiring himself out more - certainly his appetite has increased dramatically over the last week or so, and we've had success with 'raw' melon, pear and banana (all soft enough for him to gum), plenty of corn based crisp snacks, and a welcome return to a few meals I used to prepare for him but which got a lukewarm response last time we tried them. He seems to be eating everything we put int front of him now!

And Zachary is now mastering the art of pulling himself up to standing on anything and everything in sight! The sofa, footstool, blanket box and fireguard are all fair game, as well as (we have now discovered) ...his cot (both in and out of sleeping bag - we're looking forward to nights of a crying baby standing rocking in his cot) and the bath. He can also get himself out of the Bumbo now and spent the time it took me to fill his bath this evening standing by the toilet banging on the lid. Great.

One positive though - because he likes standing, he's keeping relatively still in a good position for nappy attachment!

There's far too much going on!

We've had an exciting (well...that's one word for it!) week or so. Firstly, L came down with a stomach bug and basically hasn't eaten for a week. He seems to be all repaired now though, which is good - annoyingly though, he phoned the doctor last Wednesday for an appointment, and they had none free until today! What if it had been more of an emergency???

Also, we've had no central heating or hot water since last Thursday-ish. The water was playing up before then, but we didn't really notice because the only time we really use the hot tap intensively is in the evening when the heating is on anyway and there was some water heating going on. If there was no central heating on, hot water was non-existent. It appears the fan has packed up and some other bits need replacing to fix the hot water situation - parts needed to be ordered and so the work can't be done until tomorrow. So it's been a weird few days back to a world without central heating - electric heaters a go-go, and poor old Zachary has had to endure a couple of showers with me as there's no hot water for his bath. He is very slippery!

Z now also has his first tooth! It's very exciting and the tooth is poking well above his gum now and can be seen as well as felt (there was a bit of demurral last weekend when Annie suggested there was a tooth on the way because nothing could be felt!). This has however led to a couple of nights of screaming!!!

Nighttime sleeping also seemed to have gone downhill generally and Z was ending up in our bed quite a few nights because we could not put him down in his cot peacefully (lots of excuses - tummy bug, teething, another cold...) - unfortunately he no longer seems to sleep as well as he once did in our bed, and there were still frequent wakings, as well as on one occasion, Z being wide awake at 3 in the morning wanting to play with us, prod our faces etc etc. But, thanks to a visit from Auntie Becky (she of the tough love solution - and no children of her own yet!) at the weekend, we have hardened our resolve and instituted a new regime. Z went to bed on Saturday and immediately started crying. Usually, we would pick him up and rock him to sleep on a shoulder until he settles and then try to put him down in the cot - usually resulting in one of us spending a good half hour trying this until getting him down successfully.

This time, we left him for five minutes, and then went back to check. Still crying. Left it another five minutes, then ten minute intervals. He finally went to sleep an hour later and it was horrendous going up and not picking him up to comfort him...but...somehow it worked. He woke about an hour later - we dealt with it the same way and he was asleep again much quicker. Next waking was at half midnight, then not again until 7am. And then he went back to sleep for another hour after that!

It was the best night we've had for ages, not least because Zachary was in his cot all night, and I didn't spend two hours in the cold in his room with him asleep on my shoulder. Unbelievable. And he didn't seem to hate us on Sunday. Tried it again Sunday night, and again met with success.

It's really hard to do, because both of us just want to comfort him when he's crying, but seems to be working at the moment. L said he also got a sense one time he went up that Z was crying just to be picked up. We're giving it a week to see whether he gets used to the new arrangement and settles more quickly by the end of then.

I've also finally finished my first project on the new sewing machine - curtains for Z's room, and I'm really pleased with them. Haven't taken a picture yet, but will do shortly.

Mum's visiting tomorrow, Z has his first swimming lesson here (cold permitting) and hopefully the heating's being fixed, so it's looking pretty busy for this week too.

Finally, L has a time capsule thingy which reminds him of photos taken a year ago - this one came up for today...it all seems so long ago!

How much mess can one chocolate button make?

A surprisingly large amount I found today! It was kind of my fault really - I took Z to the Westfield Centre in Derby this afternoon (on the bus - aaargh) for some retail therapy and stopped for refreshment in a chocolate shop. The kind lady serving asked if Z could have a white chocolate button..I immediately thought 'no, think of the sugar!' but then decided that he may as well have a try of it.

Unfortunately I forgot what he tends to do with finger food at the moment, which is bang it on the table for a while to see if it makes an interesting sound, then mash it about a bit between his hands, before finally venturing to touch it to his lips, and occasionally something goes in.

So, imagine that with a large chocolate button and a little boy with very hot hands. Slippery, melty chocolate which got smeared all over the table, his trousers, his top, and consequently my clothes. It kept slipping from his grasp so more chocolate smeared whilst he grappled with his clothes trying to rescue the chocolate. Baby wipes were useless!!

The great wash

I remember a time not so long ago when Zachary's wash would be a very carefully executed routine - face, then ears and neck, hands, elbows and armpits and finally bottom. Then a hair wash (mainly because it helped us get rid of the cradle cap), and back onto the change mat for dressing.

Sadly, now that he can both roll and crawl, morning washes are much more the case of either me or L chasing a naked baby round the nursery, wafting a damp piece of cotton wool in his general bottom direction, hoping against hope that some contact is actually made. Thank goodness for evening baths!

Back up!

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Dead Set

I've never been particularly good with horror films. I don't think of myself as particularly squeamish (I can watch CSI/Silent Witness etc with the best of them) but I've never really been into out and out horror. Many of my school friends grew up on a diet of Nightmare on Elm Street and Childs Play, but it really wasn't for me. It tends to unsettle me quite a bit. I think my imagination probably worked overtime a lot (Seven and Silence of the Lambs were nowhere near as bad as I thought they'd be), and certainly I get a morbid fascination with hearing about films like that but in general I can really only cope with horror if I can distance myself from it a bit - like if it's funny. And I mean both intentional funny like Shaun of the Dead, or so bad it's hilarious, like one fantastic film we watched called Frankenstein and Dracula (yes, it is that bad!).

So, Leigh recorded Charlie Brooker's Dead Set when it was on TV and finally two nights ago we ran out of other things to watch. Again, it wasn't as bad as I'd built it up to be (although we've only watched 1 episode so far) but I did have my coping mechanisms in place...L had stolen the laptop, so out came the cross stitch to hide behind! The lights had to be on and inane discussion ensued to take my mind off it...realising that of course zombies won't be able to work a wheelchair. Wondering what happens when zombies have zombified everyone and they run out of food - do they all die off? Not much of a plan for world domination. It then occurred to me that not everyone who got eaten was turned into a zombie - is it just random? Does the zombie parasite chose? Does it depend on how much they get eaten? So if not everyone gets turned, that leaves food for zombies?

L is no better than me really - his main concern was the speed at which the zombies move. Fast zombies - infinitely more scary than the slow doddery kind. A friend pointed this article out. That's my kind of distraction technique!!

'Lots' of fun

(with apologies for the poor punnage)

Since moving to Long Eaton we've been determined to try and go to a few auctions to see if we can pick up any bargains for the house - in particular looking for big mirrors, a bureau (you don't seem to be able to buy them new anymore) and any random crockery or glassware for the kitchen. And of course anything else which takes our fancy!

We finally got organised and found a local auction room which runs Victorian, Edwardian and General sales every fortnight and went along this week. There was a chance to view the items on Tuesday before the sale on Wednesday. With over 1100 lots, there was a huge amount to look through.

It was quite bizarre really and a strange mixture of items - pictures, furniture, crockery, glassware and much more...some period stuff and some modern (a huge TV and some nasty sofas for instance!). There was plenty we were interested in but knew it had to be pared down a bit and as the auctions are regular, there's a lot of stuff which will come round again. So unfortunately, the Gilbert gramophone and shield with swords and blunderbusses had to be dropped!!!

On the day, we were reasonably successful, although in the smaller items section found ourselves up against the clearly shop buyers - a couple of men bidding for all the Derby Crown pieces, one woman bidding against us for all the silver plated tea sets, and too many people bidding for the TG Green Cornish spice pots. Lovely, but too expensive in the end. Bidding was great - a bit of an adrenalin rush. I can see that going regularly might get a bit dangerous. It's all very well setting yourselves limits, but when the bidding's only going up by £2 at a time, it doesn't seem like much more until you realise you've just spent £20 over what you wanted to!! So what did we end up with?



Lovely blanket box. There were several up for sale, this one being the first which came up after we arrived and I bidded (bade?) successfully for it! £20. Nice.



Silver plated tea and coffee pots, sugar bowl, creamer and two other random silver plated items. Cost us £45 - a bit expensive really but we were determined to out bid the woman who beat us to the set we really wanted!!



£15 for masses of Moschendorf blue and white crockery. Leigh was umming and ahhing about whether to bid for it and was charmed into it by the auctioneer's patter of - oh look at that. You get lots of it - and we were the only bidders at £15. Not too bad.

Didn't manage to get a bureau (despite some great ones there) or mirrors. Shame. Means we'll just have to drag ourselves back there!

Bread attempt 5

Best yet! Hurrah - actually looks and tastes like a decent loaf so we'll wait and see how it is tomorrow. Right amount of dough in right tin, right amount of yeast, not too hot when rising and didn't leave it too long in the fan oven (although it does look quite dark in the picture and could probably do with still less time). Let's hope the next loaf goes as well....



Also, we're off to an auction tomorrow - Victorian, Edwardian and General sale in Derby. Never been to one before despite having watched far too much Bargain Hunt, Cash in the Attic etc etc and am quite excited about it. We went to the rooms today for a viewing of the lots and to try and decide what (if anything) we're going to bid for. We were hoping to pick up a mirror or nice armchair, but there weren't many that we liked - still, plenty of glassware and ceramics to keep us occupied tomorrow!

Impossible Pie

Saw this recipe in a church magazine over the weekend and thought I'd give it a go -

Impossible Pie
Ingredients :
4 eggs
¼ cup margarine
1 cup sugar
½ cup flour
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
2 cups milk
1 cup coconut
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend everything together. Pour into 10“ dish and bake for 1 hour at Gas 4/180C/350F. The pie will sort itself out into three layers - sponge at the bottom, custard in the middle and coconut on top.

I was unbelieving...here it is pre-oven - all liquidy and no substance



and here it is all done.



And yes it did work! Sugary, coconutty addictive layer on top, very eggy tasting set custard (like in an egg custard rather than what you would pour over apple crumble - not sure if it came out right or I overcooked it?) and weirdy sponge layer at the bottom. Impossible.

Scattergories

Played a game of Scattergories with my sister and brother-in-law this afternoon. Aside from the obvious willy and penis jokes (L's suggestion for a crime starting with 'P' - penis waving) I got a bit confused trying to think of footwear beginning with P as well.

I was thinking of those shoes, you know, the ones with really pointy toes - wrote down 'pinklewickers.' Looked at it, thought it didn't look right and tried 'picklewinkers.' No, still not right. Fortunately my brain kicked into gear just before the end of the round and I crossed the word out - winklepickers doesn't start with a P.

Bread - attempt 4

I've now had a go at the Hovis recipe on the back of the yeast packet and this turned out to be my best bread so far! Again it didn't appear to rise sufficiently before baking, but it was the lightest so far and was still soft (ish) today when I baked at the beginning of the week - usually my bread is like a rock on the second day.

I followed the recipe closely, even measuring out the yeast - I usually just dump a whole packet in, figuring that packets come in the right sizes. And what have I learnt...there's more than 1 1/2 tspns of yeast in a packet. Why?? Surely most people would be following a standard 2 lb loaf recipe, in which case why have more yeast than that in a packet and what do I do with the rest??? I think too much yeast could have been a cause of some of the problems I've been having with earlier loaves.

This recipe also uses only one rising (Delia had a rise and a prove) and came out fine, so again why would you go to the bother of having a second rising? Does it make for better bread in the end?

And finally it turned out that I was using 2 x 2lb tins when L had quite convinced me that they were only 1 lb tins. So in fact I've only effectively been using half the dough I should have been in each tin. That may solve the 'doesn't appear to rise above the top of the tin' problem. I was sure they were 2 lb tins...I must never let L convince me of anything again!

No pictures I'm afraid - too much eaten by the time I got my act together! Next time...

Ingredients :
500g / 1lb 2oz strong white flour
25g / 1oz butter
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
300ml / 10 floz warm water
2tsp sugar (optional - to give added flavour and a thicker crust)

Mix together the flour, (sugar) and salt, rub in the butter then stir in the yeast.
Stir in the water and mix into a dough by hand.
Knead for 5 minutes in an electric mixer or turn out onto a floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes by hand
Shape the dough and place in a greased 2lb tin or on a baking tray. Cover with a clean damp tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (1 1/2 to 2 hours).
Uncover and bake in an oven preheated to 230C / 450F / Gas 8 for 30-35 minutes. The baked loaf should sound hollow when tapped underneath.
Turn out onto a wire rack to cool

I've lipped mmy chaps

Trying to explain to L a problem I'm having with the cold weather. Hmmm...not my only problem methinks.

Bread - v. 1.3

My third go at bread last night was better than the other two although I'm still not completely happy with it. I followed Delia more closely this time, even giving it a second kneading, but still not great.§ I probably should have left the dough to prove for longer...or I used too much yeast (see notes in the recipe below). Am planning to give a different recipe a go next time - the one on the Hovis packet of yeast itself. There's no proving stage i1n that recipe - may have more luck??

(Delia - slightly adapted using a kitchenaid)

Ingredients (makes 2 1lb loaves or 1 2lb loaf) :
1lb 8oz strong white flour (700g)
1 tbspn salt or less according to taste
1 teaspoon easy-blend yeast (I have been using a whole packet)
1 teaspoon golden caster sugar
about 15 floz hand-hot water (425ml)

Using the dough hook, mix all the dry ingredients together using the mixer. Then use setting 2 and slowly pour in the water to form a dough. I found that this amount of water tends to make the dough a bit too wet, so for this bread I stopped when the mixer formed a dough ball which cleaned the sides of the bowl.

Knead on setting 2 for 3 minutes.

Place into bowl, cover with oiled cling film and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about an hour).

Take the dough out, knock back and then knead again for 2 minutes.

Split into 2, form into loaf shapes and place into the tins. Cook at Gas 8 / 350F / 230C for 30-40 minutes for the smaller loaves or 35-45 minutes for the larger until the bases sound hollow when tapped.

Turn out on wire rack to cool

Thank you Asda!

Z lost a shoe in Asda last week - I called in today and some helpful, kind soul had handed it in to customer services - thank you!!!

I also went a bit mad on Hallowe'en...

Today's baking

Well...not quite as much as I hoped, but today have managed to make a fruit compote thingy for Zachary (cooking apple, pear and dried apricots and then whizzing together in the food processor), and a cheesy spinach sauce for pasta (called Popeye pasta obviously. It took me far too long to get the connection...!). Was planning to make some lemon biscuits, but the chocolate mousse went hideously wrong so panned that idea, made the mousse and a mug cake (more below). And finally am now halfway through my third batch of bread, for which I am holding out no hope whatsoever!!!

The choc mousse was Nigella's instant mousse from her Express book - the idea being to replace the whipped egg whites with melted marshmallows and it then needs virtually no chilling at all - certainly not as long as would normally - and the prep is quicker too. I had been obssessing about making this for ages, and we've had a packet of small white marshmallows in the cupboard for a long time specially for this recipe. However from my attempt today I have learned that although the melting pan needs heat, it needs a v low heat - everything separated and I ended up with cups of mousse with lovely pockets and puddles of solid butter in them!! Also, the mousse is pretty rich - I was experimenting with having it in tea-cups, but that would be far too much. Espresso cups much more manageable I think. Need to give it another go :

Ingredients :
150g mini marshmallows
50g soft butter
250g good dark chocolate chopped into small pieces
60ml hot water from a kettle recently boiled
1 284ml tub double cream (although Morrisons only seemed to have 300ml tubs..)
1 tspn vanilla extract

Put the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water in a heavy-based saucepan. Put the saucepan on the hob, over heat, though keep it fairly gentle, to melt the contents, stirring every now and then. Remove from the heat.

Whip the cream with the vanilla extract until thick, and then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth cohesive mixture.

Pour or scrape into serving vessels.

Final baking effort was a mug cake! A friend has been evangelising about them on his blog and I had a go tonight with the basic recipe. Not bad tasting - would be ace with vanilla ice cream or custard. But more than that I was just astounded that it worked! The mug was so full I felt sure I was headed for disaster, but no, it all turned out well!

Cake in mug (having quickly deflated after leaving the microwave)



and turned out (with helpful finger for size comparison...)



- put 4 tbspn plain flour, 4 tbspn sugar and 2 tbspn cocoa in a mug and mix thoroughly

- add 1 egg and mix thoroughly

- add 3 tbspn milk and 3 tbspn oil - mix again until well combined

- can add choc chips or a splash of vanilla

- microwave for 3 minutes at 1000 watts or 4 minutes at 700 watts (our microwave is 800 watts so I cooked for 3 mins 40 secs and it seemed to come out right). The cake will rise above the top of the mug - don't panic!

- allow to cool and turn out on a plate if you like

Bread is my jam

Kneading is the bit I really hate about breadmaking and has put me off for a while. So when L's new Kitchenaid arrived resplendent with dough hook I thought - Hurrah, now I can make perfect bread.

Unfortunately my first two attempts have not been highly successful. First attempt, the oven was too hot in the baking...still haven't got the hang of a fan oven! Second attempt, the oven was too warm when the dough was rising and I think I killed off all the yeast. It didn't rise at all during the proving phase.

So I;m not putting any pictures up until I get a loaf I'm happy with - although they do make great toast!

(BTW L had a 'jam block' a few years ago - consistency wise it seemed to turn out either like tar or water. Eventually he achieved success. I'm hoping the same for my bread)

Bad day, good day

Wednesday was a bad day. I was tired and headachey from Z's recent nighttime shenanigans (he's had a cold complete with phlegmy cough) and my mind really wasn't on the job. Zachary was due a blood test at Derby City General Hospital - I left the door on the latch on the way out, fortunately L was still in. The blood test itself went really well - Z was more upset at having to relinquish the Duplo he was playing with than by the nurse squeezing blood from his foot! We then went over to L's brother's house to drop off my car which is going to be sold. Goodbye to my vehicular independence. Dropped the car off, L picked me and Z up, asked me several times if there was anything left in the car to which I said no. Half way back home I remembers I'd left a buggy in the boot of the car. Bah! Got home and discovered I'd left the patio doors wide open after putting the bin out in the morning.

Got a bit stressed at dinnertime trying to make dinner and rice pudding. Why rice pudding? I'm not sure. I think I heard someone mention it the previous week and I have been obssessing about it since then! But got everything made, although I'm not sure the pudding is quite right...



It looks okay and the flavour was great, but I'm not too sure that it should really be a thick layer of glued together rice with the milky liquid no thicker than when it went into the oven underneath. I think my basin wasn't the right size.

So with all this annoyance going on I went out for a haircut after Z was in bed. Now I'm not sure if it was the haircut (which looked great), the caffeine in the coffee at the shop, or just being on my own and having an hour's break from the house, but it really refreshed me and I returned home a changed woman. Well, almost!

Thursday much better - actually managed to get more baking done with Zachary and went out to a new playgroup in the morning. Fantastic.

Mission Impossible

In the absence of a proper blog for now, here's a text I received from my sister this morning which made me laugh out loud

"Have introduced inlaws to hole in the wall, harry hill and the train game - mission accomplished!"

It's growing