Wow how is it December already? Time sure flies when you have a family going in every direction! As the winter months set in I thought that it would be a great idea for everyone in the family to grow a plant that they could put in the garden come spring. We went to the local gardening centre where everyone could pick out their plant of choice. We returned with three packs of sunflower seeds and three packs of rose seeds. When we got home we put the soil in the pots and planted our seeds and placed them on the window sill above the sink. We needed a place that received ample sunlight. I can not wait for the plants to start to grow! This will be great for the kids to learn how to care for something and to take pride in the growth of their plant!
After all the planting I was craving something sweet. I decided to make Naughty Chocolate fudge cake. It was extremely simple to make. Other chocolate fudge cakes are usually very heavy and rich, but this cake was very light and airy. A great pick me up for the dreary weather outside! Hopefully there is a nice say coming our way soon!
Lloyd is the most recent contestant to be voted off of X Factor, I can’t believe that there are only four contestants left! I have to admit that I did enjoy Lloyd’s voice and his stage presence; I think that we will be seeing more of him in the future! With his departure it made me realize how young some of the contestants were on the show. That is only a few years away for my children and I just couldn’t even imagine being in the spotlight like that! I wonder what it must have been like to be discovered at such a young age and how different their lives will be. Must be all the Guitar Hero I played this weekend that made me realize the calibre of talent that the contestants have!
Looks like a rainy weekend ahead of us so I doubt we will be heading out to London. Instead we have lots to do inside the house and I am sure the kids will love having another weekend playing some Guitar hero world tour and D.J hero! I think “being in a band” is just everywhere right now, and reflects on how much appeal these games have for the whole family. In this month’s AdventureBox for example the fun and games section was called “On Tour With The Band” and the kids really enjoyed that too.
Plus there is the X factor to look forward to; I guess it’s a musical home for us again – and I will be cooking a delicious roast dinner for us all on Sunday! Plus we will all be helping Ellie practice for her role as Dorothy in the school’s production of The Wizard of Oz.
The weekend is nearly here and even thought it is going to be another cold and wintery one we have lots of fun things planned indoors so it is all good.
We are obviously all looking forward to the X factor this week; following Jamie’s shock departure last week who knows what will happen! I am starting to predict Olly, Stacey and Jedward being in the final. Then again I change my mind every week. I am hoping the single will be number one this week in the charts as all the money goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a very worthy cause!
We will also be playing lots of games and having lot of general indoor fun. I came across a new game from StoryBox as well yesterday which will be fun for the younger two. Plus it is totally free, which in the run up to Christmas is a winner for me! The game features the StoryBox Favorite character Polo and is very interactive for the kids. They can “hunt” for the Christmas shapes around Polo’s tree-house.
After my freezer clear-out yesterday I was left with a number of unusual ingredients to use up. This included some scallops and prawns, that rather embarrassingly have probably been there since last Christmas! So I typed in the ingredients I had into google for some recipe inspiration and a risotto seemed like a winning idea. So I had a go at it and wow, it was delicious! I should be clearing out my freezer more!
I am going to try and find some more chestnuts this afternoon to make some homemade chestnut stuffing for christmas (I freeze the mix and then defrost and cook on the day). I imagine most of the chestnuts will have gone by now but I thought it might be worth a shot!
I’m feeling rather grumpy today and I am sure it is S.A.D (seasonal affective disorder) kicking in. Last winter I bought a special lamp to help out so I hope to spend some time with that later today. Keeping busy is another great way to distract me, so later today I am going to clear out the big chest freezer in the garage in preparation for Christmas. I am sure this will leave me with some interesting meals for the next day or two as I struggle to put together some meals with odd ingredients, but sometimes this is when my most creative dishes are created. Plus I am hoping to do round one of the Christmas shop today… wish me luck
Well, despite the horrible weather we still managed to have a lovely weekend. It certainly seems like Winter is here and here to stay don’t you think!?
On a brighter note, we have had a mad X factor weekend. It just seems to get more and more exciting. Plus I was very moved by the Great Ormond Street feature on last nights show; as a mother of four I know just how important the work this charity does is and I am very happy to support it by buying the X factor single.
I thought the single being performed was really good too so I’m sure we will have a lot of fun listening to it and doing our very best impressions of John and Edward’s infamous dance moves!
Well, the Pad Thai dish went down really well, I will definitely be making it again. Plus I was surprised how quick and easy it was to make. The whole process only took about 10 minutes, so it is definitely a dish I will consider on evenings when I am a bit pushed for time. The kids all thought the noodles were great fun (like skinny spaghetti apparently) plus the liked the lime and squeezing it all over the dish!
We are off to see my sister in London this weekend which is going to be lots of fun, if not a little tiring. I am hoping to try and get a bit of Christmas shopping in and take the kids to Hamleys, although I am dreading the busy busy streets. Still though, my sister has agreed we should have a nice relaxed evening in, so perhaps a cheeky takeaway and X factor – how lovely.
I thought it had been a while since I had tried a new recipe (and of course shared the good, the bad and the ugly details of said recipe)!
If you are a regular reader, you will probably know I love Thai food and often try out different recipes for different curries. I also love introducing lots of different cuisines to the children; we don’t allow picky eatings in our house (although I don’t make the kids dishes to spicey).
Anyway, one famous Thai dish I have never tried out before is Pad Thai. I have bought some rice noodles especially for the job and some fresh lime too, plus I have some freshly laid eggs courtesy of my lovely chicks! I’m going to have a go at a prawn one tonight as there were some lovely big king prawns on half-price I picked up the other day! If not I would probably do a vegetarian version, as I have tried one made with tofu before and it was so delicious. I do try to eat a vegetarian diet when I can, and tofu is both cheap and very nutritional. I will let you know how it goes down anyway!
Sadly, yesterday I realized that when it comes to making dresses, I am not supermum as I first thought. Darning snags on clothes is one thing, but making a dress from scratch… I don’t think my skills can do my little girl justice on stage so I have been looking into buying something instead. I do feel a bit guilty about that, but still, I don’t want to let her down with my shoddy attempts. I gave up after about an hour yesterday having come to realize that I really was not up to the job.
Some good news though, James our little hamster is doing very well now! We bought him after one of the Bayard books did an article on hamsters and the kids were determined to own one. We also have lots of chickens (who lay me delicious eggs) but Michael was joking the other day as this month’s DiscoveryBox has a really cute feature on macaque monkeys and he was saying he wouldn’t be surprised to come home and find a cheeky monkey running around the place. Whilst I do admit my place might sometimes be considered a bit of a madhouse, I don’t think it has quite come to that yet!
