Motherly Guilt

Ah, so the first year marker has come and gone, I am allowed to wallow in smugness that I've actually managed to keep the little darling alive and in one piece.

And the guilt cometh.

Having a baby produces a fair amount of guilt that floods you from time to time, feeding, sleeping, frustration that you're not sleeping etc.

But the older the baby becomes and the more things they are capable of brings more and more guilt. Is the food I'm feeding her good enough? Am I playing with her enough?

And don't even get me started on doing something like leaving her with my mother so I can have a hair cut (the first in over a year I may add).

I hear from a very reliable source (Mother...) that the guilt is pretty much all consuming until the child reaches about 22. Then it subsides to about 98%.

And then, when you finally shake the guilt out of your (newly coiffed) barnet, the guilt over no longer feeling guilty begins....

I don't belieeeve it

I never thought I'd say it, as I am in fact incredibly opinionated and judgemental and have a tendancy to read Closer magazine I assumed Gwyneth was a stuck up macrobiotic vegan holier than thou type....I was wrong.

Bask in that fact as it is rare...

I saw her on *say it quietly* Graham Norton and she was actually fairly pleasant. She talked about her book and I was intrigued.

It's actually a brillint book. If a recipe book is readable like a 'proper' book, you're on to a good'un. Very few do this, namely pretty much only Nigella, Hugh and this one so far.

I think it's also a fairly nice thing when you go through thinking 'I want to make that...and that...and that...and that'. Which I did.

She goes in to some of the health benefits of some of the ingredients she uses, like Agave Nectar and Spelt flour. I had no idea spelt was soooo much better for you than regular flour, I'm in the middle of an experiment substituting spelt for normal flour and seeing if it's noticeable (so far, it's not, and the resulting non-wheat-bloat is quite refreshing).

I have so far made her normal blueberry muffins-excellent, you'll never buy shop bought again;

her vegan blueberry muffins (no sugar either)-actually very nice, obviously not as sweet as the 'regular' ones, more breakfasty. Quite the look on the kid's faces when they think they've got cake for breakfast...even better when you can sit smugly kowing there's probably less sugar and definitely fewer bad things (or none) than their regular cereal.

I have also made her peanut butter cookies the recipe of which I will blog on Tales from the Kitchen soon. I made a few adjustments, I had no dark brown sugar so mixed dark muscavado and caster (no problems) and I used chocolate chips instead of peanut butter chips, partly as I ca't get them in Eastbumbleworthy aka Devon and I wasn't about to spend vast sums of money mail ordering them from somewhere considerably more diverse than here. According to my tasters-kids, husband, mother....Tom-the chocolate chips are a welcome addition.

So, Gwyneth haters swallow your pride and buy this book. Just prepare yourself and your kitchen for the 47 different bags of flour that you'll inevitably purchase....

Cupcake Porn

How did I get this far in life without it?

Oh Ebay, you have enabled me to pay homage to this utterly delicious brand. I intend to wallow (luxuriously) in their cotton-ness and cozyness and revel in the fact that I paid absolutely nowhere near the full retail price...now if those Frenh Sole ballet flats don't sky rocket I'll be in luxe brand heaven.

I am attempting to mix up (ha!) my baking, when cupcake making I normally just used a standard sponge receipe but as I knew (and am now giving into) I am actually supposed to be using a cupcake batter...who knew?! Well I did, but let's not nit pick.

Sooo I used a Hummingbird Bakery (in Kensington...go. Now.) receipe, and it worked, they are lighter and rise flatter-if that makes sense-and are therefore easier to ice as there's no weird peaky bit protruding from the center. The only snag is that as there's milk in the mix, they don't keep particularly long. But then again, if they are any good I doubt they'd make it past that evening. The frosting from that book also work well although I dispute the amount of milk in their chocolate frosting, it was far too sloppy and the cakes had to be refrigerated to stop the frosting sliding off-much to my disgust. I'll be posting the cake and (revised) frosting receipe on Tales from the Kitchen along with an absolutely amazing chocolate orange loaf cake which also-as I've discovered to great glee-converts well into cupcakes.

No reason really for the Wagamama's shot except for the fact my tea disappointed me and I want this....

My cutey bum cow girl, I couldn't resist....

Boho Gelato

This place is genius. I would be very fat if I lived here permanently. Go. Immediately.

Kitchen Jiggery Pokery

My poor long suffering husand. As soon as I stopped working, I took over the kitchen, and boy did I take over. My modern, minimalist husband has lost an entire room of the house to my vast amounts of frippery. And worse, I (nicely) twist his arm into making bits of furniture to accommodate my bric-a-brac. Bless him...

Bish Bash Bosh

Bish...





Bash...





Bosh...

And forewith starts the perilous attempt to regain..don't fail me now bulletpoints....

• My creativity
• My ability to dress in a cohesive manner, excluding pyjamas and/or hoodies
• A waist
• The ability to write witticisms (sp?) without having to jingle a Winnie the Pooh toy with my left toe.

A small list of aims but theoretically an absolutely ENORMOUS one.

Here goes nuttin'...